The Legend of Zelda: An Iron Chain
by Tanthachon25
Summary: Yaoi VioShadow Peace has been ushered in by the four links, who have somehow remained as four after replacing the sword. But darkness always returns. Now Ganondorf has broken the seal and shattered the four sword, a terrible prophecy is unfolding around them. The four links, aided by new allies and new wargear, are fighting off the back foot to save not only Hyrule, but each other.
1. A new beginning

**Disclaimer;**

**Vio: Tanthachon25 does not own anything in this story except the plotline. He doesn't own the legend of Zelda, the warhammer 40k universe, any Fatboyslim lyrics, the secret recipie for lonlon milk or the Caestus assault ram STC.**

**Red: STC?**

**Vio: The holographic blueprint do-hicky, do I look like an expert in the technology that hasn't even been dreamed of yet?**

**Zelda: Good point!**

The sun was setting over the land, unaware of how close it had come to annihilation. Far off to the north, in the open ruins of an ancient temple, five figures stood round a stone pedestal set into the earth. One was garbed in finery of Hyrulean royalty, a necklace containing an engraving of the triforce fastened around her neck. Another wore the green tunic, light green undershirt and the loose cap worn by knights in training, his blonde hair neatly swept over. The three others were almost identical, except for their clothes and a few subtle details. One wore deep blue, his form slightly bulkier than his green counterpart. The boy next to him was slightly shorter, skinnier, and had a certain look about him that depicted him as a lot younger than the others. His timid face didn't quite match his clothes, which were a full, fiery red. The final boy was clad in dark purple; the blond hair flopping out from under the cap was long and glossy, covering one of the calculating but warm blue eyes that stood out in his face. Each of these boys was holding the hilt of a beautiful sword, with white shining blades and ornate gold hilts. They stood in silence for a while, contemplating on what had to be done.

"I'll never forget this." Vio spoke, looking at the boys that stood by him, his mind already trying to work out what was going to happen even before it did. Would there be any pain involved? Were they all going to be still slightly aware of each other inside Link's mind? Or would he just cease to exist? He didn't want to think ahead, but look back on the past few hours, form drawing the Four Sword to that confusing moment when Zelda realised about him and the others.

"Thanks for everything!" Blue grinned, casting his mind over the fact that he had changed so much in the space of less than a day; from arrogant, selfish jerk to a strong-willed, protective, heroic person. He had learned that teamwork always prevailed over working alone, and that violence and hitting people over the head with hammers didn't always get what you wanted. He realised that he had learned more than just to be patient. He had learned to be truly courageous.

"I love all of you guys!" Red's voice was cracking a bit, a few tears squeezing out from his eyes. He knew that he shouldn't but they were tears of joy rather than of sadness or fear. He was trying his best to be brave, like he had when he had faced Arrghus in the dark world. He realised that bravery must come at certain times, when you least expected it. He remembered that during that final battle, he had not given in to terror, he had held onto the Four Sword with all his strength, whereas the weaker Red that fought Vaati's first form would've given in. he had grown stronger, braver.

"Together…," Green smiled at his clones. They had seemed so annoying before, like weights holding him back. Now though, the four of them acted as one, a single, well-oiled machine that ran smoother than glass. They were less of his clones now, but more like his brothers. But the seal needed to be restored, lest the soul-destroying darkness of Ganondorf consume the land again. He stepped to the pedestal, and as Blue, Vio and Red slammed the sword into the pedestal, he did the same.

"….forever!"

There was a flash, a thunderclap, a blast of brilliant golden light, and then silence.

"Did it work?" a boisterous voice demanded.

"Of course it did!" another, deeper voice answered. "The seal was restored and we merged back into…" The voice trailed away. Vio looked at the seal, then to Red, to Green, to the seal again, to Zelda, before stopping, and widening in confusion.

"Dammit!" Blue swore, punching the wall next to him in frustration. "It didn't work? Why didn't it work?"

"It did work," Zelda was staring at the Four Sword intently, looking as confused as Vio. "The seal is restored, but something's wrong! The effects of the sword should've been reversed when it was replaced!"

"But that's great!" Red cried, almost jumping up in the air with joy "We can stay as four now!" he caught Blue in a massive hug, which was surprisingly strong for a person of his stature.

"Hey! Red!" Blue yelled in protest, struggling in Red's embrace, but eventually giving up and gently patting him on the head with his free hand, scowling at Green and Vio who had burst out laughing. "It's not really that funny, is it?" he asked indignantly, as Green almost fell over in hysterics.

"I can't believe that you two could look so cute together!" Vio laughed, leaning against a wall and covering his face one hand. He broke off suddenly, and let out a huge yawn. He had forgotten how tired he was.

"Good point Vio!" Red piped, releasing Blue from the hug, who sighed in relief. "When was the last time we actually got any sleep?

"We would've got some in the Blue Maiden's Village if Green hadn't tried to get off with Erune!" Blue huffed, slinging his shield over his shoulder.

"Shut up!" Green laughed indignantly, following Zelda as the four of them left the sanctuary.

And as the four shadows of the links cast by the setting sun met into one, it snapped its fingers and seemed to smile.


	2. The fall of the four sword

**Tanthachon25: Kill time! Hehe!**

**Vio: Indeed! now Red can cook us some dinner!**

**Red: Aww, but you've just had lunch!**

**Tanthachon25: Cook...as in...with a fire rod...incinerate...get the picture?**

**Red: Oh! Not really no!**

**'sigh'**

Two years later.

The huge bells of the castle tower rang out across the land, ringing clear as far away as Lake Hylia. With each desperate peal, townsfolk ran for cover, scooping up children and abandoning carts that cluttered the narrow cobblestones. However, when the bells stopped, even more fear filled the air, as the magnificent Hyrulean Clock Tower was blasted apart by a huge explosion that rocked the castle to its core. And as the huge bell came to rest in the town's central plaza, a huge double-headed Gleeok crashed down out of the sky, smashing the cobbles underneath its huge claws. It lifted its head to the sky and roared in triumph, as the cloud of daemonic killing machines descended onto Hyrule Castle.

Inside the castle, claws thrummed on the wooden boards as a pack of manticores charged through the lower levels of the castle, knocking aside knights and barricades as if they were made out of parchment. There was a cry from in front of the pack, as the leading manticore was skewered by a heavy iron javelin. The manticores didn't check their dash, and the ballista that had fired the javelin was smashed to pieces in seconds.

Vendema Blue stood on the walls of the castle, listening as the pounding of claws on boards grew closer and closer. His grip tightened on the heavy marble-headed battle hammer, as the manticores shot out onto the walls, bowling over a castle guard and racing on towards him.

"Come on at me then!" Blue murmured, before screaming with fury, and charging towards the beasts. Manticore and knight met head on in a vicious clash. In the storm of battle, the manticore's claws sliced through thin air as their target spun through the chaos, dodging the razor sharp claws with ease, the head of the battle hammer smashing the manticores aside with every devastating swipe. Not even thinking, Blue unsheathed the combat knife from his belt and drove it upwards into the belly of a manticore behind him, before spinning round and smashing another off the wall who had taken the opportunity to get him in the back. In seconds, the pack was lying dead at Blue's feet, as he shook off the blood from the blade of his knife.

A shriek to his left diverted his attention, and he spun round, as a huge jet-black drakkon, its mighty wings creating small tornadoes with each beat, rose level with the parapet of the wall. It opened its mouth and sent a burst of flame towards him. Blue yelled, and dived out the way, as out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shape leap from one of the towers, hurtling towards the drakkon's back. Yamaha Red gracefully landed on the drakkon's scaly tail, sprinted along it, sending bursts of both fire and icy fire at spots on the creature's back, scorching and freezing the scales at the same time.

The drakkon roared in fury, tossing Red high into the air, hoping to catch this irritating snack on two legs in its mouth. However, if you'd have thought Blue was agile, Red was a gymnast. He landed on one of the drakkon's huge fangs and sent a blast of fire down its throat, before daintily somersaulting out of its mouth and landing gently at Blue's side. The creature screeched in pain, crashing into the castle walls before falling to the ground in an earthshaking thump.

Blue was staring in awe at the place where the drakkon had been. Red giggled, putting his fire rod back in his hat and putting his arm round Blue's shoulder

"You should see your face!" he chuckled. Over the past two years, a bond of friendship had formed between the two, and they were inseparable nowadays. They had saved each other's lives countless times, shared precious moments together, and had cared for each other when they were ill or wounded. They loved each other like brothers, and the bond between them was as strong as steel.

"How the shilka can you do that?" Blue gasped, looking from the tower to Red, absolutely stunned. "You're crazy!"

"Yeah, that's me, the Crazy Red who never needs a parachute!" he laughed, as he started along the battlements. Suddenly there was a screech from above, and both boys looked up. With a whirring of rotor-like leaves half a dozen squat creatures, each carrying a large bomb in their talons, swooped down on them.

"Peahats!" Blue yelled, raising his shield. Red grabbed his fire rod again out of his hat and aimed it at the sky. The mystical rod shot out a torrent of flames that streaked towards the incoming creatures. There was a series of deafening explosions as the flames ignited the bombs, blasting the peahats into dark smoke in a devastating chain reaction. But a single creature remained unscathed, hurtling towards them. Blue threw himself to the ground, pulling Red with him as the creature smashed into the castle wall just behind them. There was a colossal boom, and the two were peppered with rubble. Blue got to his feet, coughing and waving his arm to clear some of the smoke.

"By the Goddesses…" He breathed, staring at the gaping hole in the castle wall.

* * *

><p>High atop the guard tower, a fiery Gleerok swooped down, crashing onto the tower side, and sending a blast of flame in through one of the windows. It started to climb the tower, hauling its rocky shell upwards. It reached the top and let out a deep, sonorous bellow at the sky.<p>

Suddenly, a javelin embedded itself in the creature's neck, and it toppled from the crenulations. "Reload!" came the cry, and the great javelin crossbow at the top swivelled round, sending a javelin winging across the sky. The team of Knights manning the bow slotted another javelin into the chamber, and winched back the rope. Artura, Third Knight, centred up a Gleeok in the brass crosshairs and pulled the firing lever. A second later, the creature dropped from the sky onto the outer walls of Hyrule castle.

Just as another javelin was about to be launched, there was a roar, and a pack of hellhounds burst through the trapdoor, bounding onto the crossbow's mounting and clawing at the knights armour as they fought to defend themselves. Artura drew his sword, decapitating one of the beasts before it had even realised he was there. He lifted himself out of the seat of the crossbow, and was leapt on by one of the hellhounds. The two of them grappled with each other, and as a second beast joined in, the knight and the hellhounds toppled over the crenulations and off the tower.

Artura was still fighting the first, and only realised he was falling after he had embedded his sword in the creature's head. He spun round in mid air, and as the claws of second hellhound came up to meet him, a maplebronze crossbow bolt embedded itself in the creature's neck, killing it instantly. The next second, Artura was flying, soaring over the castle. He looked up, into the white canvass folds of a glider, with sweeping delta wings and roencopper struts. Hanging in a leather harness just above him, resplendent in flying goggles and two crossed shoulder belts laden with crossbow bolts, his purple tunic flaring out behind him in the wind was it's pilot, one hand on the control rod, the other clutching Artura's gauntleted hand. The next second, Artura was standing on the castle wall, as the glider swooped up and away.

Konoko Vio looked back to make sure the knight was okay, then he banked round and dived towards castle town. People looked up in amazement as the glider shot through the street, blasting demons apart with each shot from a pair of repeating crossbows mounted on the wingtips, as the craft shot through the streets like a canvas bullet. As he came to the end of the street and swung round onto another, a huge explosion rent the air around him. In a moment of confusing terror, the control bar of the glider was wrenched from his grip, and he caught a glimpse of the cobblestones rushing up to meet him. Vio hit the ground hard, screaming in pain as his shoulder smashed into the surface of the road. He skidded along the ground, the uneven surface jarring his body constantly as he desperately tried to stop his chaotic slide. With a cry of alarm, he twisted round, as a hay cart came up to meet him at astonishing speed. Vio slammed into the cart, there was a flash of pain and everything went black.

* * *

><p>The next thing Vio knew was someone shouting in his face. His eyes snapped open, and pushing Blue off of him, he sat up in the wreckage of the hay cart. He felt around behind him and found his bow and shield lying amidst the hay. He looked around, and chaos met his eyes.<p>

Havoc was breaking out in the street. There was a huge breach in the castle wall and pouring through it was all manner of creatures, all foul and repulsive, and as black as tar. Red was doing his best to keep them back, sending bursts of fire at anything that got in his way, but he was heavily outnumbered, and they were too close for him to be able to use his fire rod at its maximum potential. The Hyrule Knights were pitching in, but couldn't get in close enough because of all the debris.

Vio drew his sword from its sheath, and climbed out of the wrecked cart. He flipped his sword around, and was bout to draw his bow when an agonizing pain shot through his right arm. He cried out, dropping his sword and collapsed, clutching his shoulder

"Vio!" Blue fell to his knees beside his friend. he felt around Vio's shoulder, and felt an indentation at the top of his arm. "Dislocated!" he murmured, and then turned to Vio. "I'm gonna plop your arm back into its socket, but it's gonna hurt like hell. you understand?"

Vio nodded, his face was becoming very pale, and his breath was coming in short gasps. the pain in his arm was worse than anything he'd ever felt, even worse than the time talon had mistook him for a thief and set his Rottweiler on him. Blue took his arm in one hand, placed the other on Vio's shoulder, and pushed hard. there was a sickening click, and Vio screamed in pain.

"Come on!" Blue lifted Vio to his feet, and put the boy's left arm over his shoulder. he climbed carefully to his feet, taking Vio's weight. He twisted his head round, and called to Red, who was still desperately trying to hold the breach single-handed, and was now covered in purple-black dust from all the creatures that had met his sword. There was blood as well, flowing from a gash across Red's face, narrowly missing both his eyes.

"Red!" Blue called, drawing the combat knife and stabbing a Rope in the head awkwardly with his right hand. He was used to fighting left-handed, but since that arm was supporting Vio, he couldn't use it. Red heard Blue's voice, looked up, and was very nearly impaled from behind by a moblin. The boy spun around, kicked his attacker in the back and entombed the creature in ice with one snowy blast of his ice rod. The boy jumped up out of the surrounding mass of evil and ran across the top of it like he was running on a melting ice floe. Red jumped, leaping off an octorok's back, and landed next to Blue and Vio, using his sleeve to wipe some of the blood off his face.

"What is it?" Red asked, looking horrified at Vio's pale face. Blue grunted. Propping his friend up was using a lot of his energy, and the mass of creatures was closing in on them.

"We need to fall back!" Blue yelled, picking up the pace and jogging awkwardly towards the nearest entrance to Hyrule Castle "We're being overrun, the wall has fallen, Vio's in no condition to fight and Green…" Blue trailed off, and he and Red exchanged shocked glances.

"GREEN"! they both yelled simultaneously, looking around for any trace of their friend. They both wheeled round, as a he explosion, louder than anything before, shook the world, and both boys dived to the floor, Blue protecting Vio with his own body as chunks of stone the size of houses blasted through the air, along with shattered fragments of reinforced wood. through the chaos, Red risked a glimpse, and quickly rolled to one side at the sight of a smaller boulder hurtling towards them. Red pulled blue out of the way as the boulder bounced, skittering along the cobblestones and crying out with each impact.

Hang on! Red thought, as the boulder started to slow down. Boulders don't cry out! he watched, dumfounded, as the boulder unfurled, and skidded towards him. Red could see now that it was not a boulder, but a figure, bruised, battered and clad in the remnants of armor. A flap of emerald fabric fluttered from one of the gaps in the armor, as the figure skidded to a stop

"Green?" Blue asked, incredulously.

"You called?" Green laughed tiredly, getting to his knees and attempting to pull off some of the armor from his body and collapsing in the process. he looked up into Blues eyes, which were for once filled with concern. "The main gate has fallen!" he said, breathing heavily "We held them for as long as we could!"

"You did good!" Blue reassured, hauling his counterpart to his feet and picking up Vio again. "We have to get Zelda, we'll get overrun if we try and hold them back anymore!"

Green nodded, too tired to think, and the four of them ran towards the nearest entrance to the castle.

* * *

><p>From the dimly lit throne room, Princess Hakarino Zelda could hear the sounds of battle. She knew what was happening, and would've cursed the captain of the knights for making her stay here. This was her kingdom, and as ruler, she couldn't stand just sitting and waiting for it to blow over. Her handmaidens were nearby, in one of the rooms leading off. Zelda had told them that she didn't want company, just time to think. She mulled over her thoughts of where link was now, whether he was leading the defense with sword in hand, inspiring courage wherever he trod. she wondered how long it would take for the evil to be gone. probably no more than a few-<p>

"Zelda! We've gotta get you out of here!" Her thoughts were interrupted, as Green, weary and battered, burst through the doorway, his armor dented and falling to pieces. Behind him came Red, followed by Blue and Vio, who was no longer being carried but still limping slightly.

"Sorry?" Zelda asked, getting up off her throne and looking with horror at the battered and injured links in front of her.

"Your majesty, the castle has been overrun." Vio spoke, his calm voice resurfacing now, but you could still tell that he was suffering greatly from the pain from his shoulder. "We've done our best to hold them off, but there's nothing more we can do. we have to go NOW!"

Zelda was about to protest, when Blue yelled "INCOMING!" and the huge oak doors to the throne room were blasted out of their frames by a huge bloated creature that flew across the room towards her, fire spewing from numerous tentacles on its body. At the last second, Green pushed Zelda out of the creature's path and dived for safety as with a splintering crash, the dais and throne were reduced to matchwood as the creature slammed into the wall, almost bringing the whole room down around them as pieces of the ceiling began to fall.

"In there!" Zelda called, pointing to a door next to what was left of the throne. She ran through it, quickly followed by the links. Red turned on the threshold, and looked back at the creature that was now thrashing around, it's tentacles flying everywhere, bringing don whole chunks of stone as the ceiling began to cave in. But before he could so much as blink, Blue's arm pulled him inside, and as the doors swung shut, all of them were plummeted into darkness.

There was a flash, as someone struck a match, and a candle flickered into life. Everyone looked round, and Green recognized the place as the room where the maidens had tried to restore Vaati's seal. The maidens were here now, the Blue Maiden holding the candle.

"Thank the goddesses you are safe, your Majesty!" the Yellow Maiden sighed happily in her sweet, honey-like voice. "And the heroes of the sword are here as well!" she looked at the four links, her yellow eyes warm and comforting.

"Come," the Purple Maiden spoke now, turning and walking to her place in the heptagonal stone slab set into the floor. "we must go to the sanctuary. I fear the Four Sword is needed once more." as she said this, The other five maidens came to stand at their places by the seal.

"Hold onto my hand!" Zelda told the Links, just as, with a crash, the doors were torn apart by an innumerable onrush of monsters. The four grabbed hold of Zelda's outstretched hand, and just as the tide of evil hit them, the Links, the Maidens and the Princess disappeared.

As the sun began to set on the Four Sword sanctuary, the blade of the sacred sword began to glisten. It could sense its wielder. Or rather wielders. The weapon began to hum, the sunlight bouncing off its hilt seemingly magnified as the usually dull green gem at the top of the sword began to flash different colors, going from green, to red, to black, to purple, to blue, to white and back to green again. The gem glowed brighter, as the air shimmered right in front of the stone pedestal. with a small _ZWOP!_, the maidens, Zelda and the Links rematerialized.

"Where are we?" Red asked, before turning and catching a glimpse of the four sword. "The sanctuary," Green sighed happily, his mind flashing back to two years earlier, and the adventure they'd had, and how it all started here. "brings back memories, doesn't it?" he turned to his companions.

"Hang on a second, something's wrong…" Vio squinted at the blade of the four sword. the whole thing was glowing ever so slightly, tinged with a red aura. at the same time, there was a cry, and he turned to see the White Maiden fall to her knees.

"Are you alright, sister?" the Blue Maiden went down beside the fallen woman, as a voice rang out, similar to Zelda's, but deeper and emotionless. It sounded as if the voice was being duplicated and played back at the same time from different places, each a nanosecond out of sync with each other. It began to recite, and the more it spoke, the blade of the four sword seemed to glow redder and redder. This was what is said.

_An iron chain, brought forth from fire,_

_Wrought with friendship, love and heart's desire,_

_Shall quest to bring the evil down,_

_And restore peace to Hyrule's crown,_

_Pure blood will flow as fast as wine,_

_As past, present and future combine,_

_One will walk lonely, bereft of a friend,_

_And one shall meet death at journey's end _

_And the hero of time shall descend from on high,_

_but should the chain break, then the end is nigh._

And as the last syllable was spoken, there was an ear-splitting explosion, as the sacred Four Sword, forged in the fires of Mount Crenel from the ashen remains of the master sword by a unity of human and Picori, that had slain beasts from small chu-chus to great demons, which had sealed away evil so great, the sword which granted the power to split into four, exploded.


	3. A Terror Unleashed

**Blue: So...you've kinda backed us into a corner with this Tanth, haven't you?**

**Tanthachon25: No worries! I has a plan, or even a pln if you're a Nac Mac Feegle!**

**Zelda: I'm assuming you don't own that as well.**

**Tanya: Otherwise Pratchett is gonna sue!**

**Tanthachon25: Shut up you! This is not your story, now get back into my head!**

**Tanya: I'll be back!**

**Green: Bye!**

**Blue: Bye!**

**Red: By-ow! Stop hitting me, Penguin!**

**Tanthachon25: uh-oh! Imagination overload! Everyone hit the deck, NOW!**

**'BOOM'**

"Get down!"

Nobody knew who said it, but all obliged. Green dived for cover, Red performed a move similar to something out of the matrix, Blue raised his shield and Vio threw himself flat on the floor despite the pain from his dislocated arm. Zelda threw her cloak over herself and the maidens in the vague hope that it would offer some protection as chaos ensued all around them.

Blue's eye caught a flash of silver and raised his shield as a jagged shard of metal sped towards him. It hit with the force of a cannon, knocking him off his feet as he felt it shatter the decorated wood of the shield, and cried out in pain as he felt something drive hard into his wrist, slicing through the skin and drawing blood. Vio looked up, and raised his arm to shield his face as pieces of sword rained down around him. He tried to get to his knees, being careful not to put too much weight on his dislocated arm, but a sharp pain in the other arm made him collapse. He looked at his arm, and gasped. A piece of the four sword was imbedded in his wrist, edged by blood where it had sliced into the surrounding flesh. He clearly hadn't got down fast enough. He could hear Red crying through the smoke, and watched as another shard sped towards Green, who ducked under a piece of fallen masonry, and the shard sped off into the distance. Green looked round, and spotted his lilac counterpart, and ran over to him.

"Vio!" he breathed, falling to his knees beside him and trying to help him up without causing him any pain. He noticed Blue on one knee, cursing and clutching his hand. There was a rumble of thunder, and he looked up, to where the Four Sword had been, and saw a huge dark mass pulsing above it. Fear in his eyes, the emerald link watched as lightning flashed, and gasped in astonishment as deep, ominous laughter rang out, making his blood turn to ice.

"_**SO,"**_ the voice boomed. _**"WHAT GOOD ARE THE FOUR SO-CALLED HEROES NOW?"**_

Blue gasped. "You!" he cried.

"_**WHAT ARE YOU TO DO NOW, INSECTS? WITH MY SEAL BROKEN AND YOUR PUNY SWORD SHATTERED, HOW ARE YOU TO STOP ME?"**_

Green stood up, drawing the knight's sword from its scabbard on his belt and pointed it at the dark cloud. "You may have disarmed us Ganondorf," he yelled over the roar of the storm. "But I swear by the goddesses we will still fight to defend our home from you, to the death if necessary!" The voice laughed again, the dark mass growing in size. Lightning was now hitting the ground, and small fires were breaking out where they struck. _**"SO BE IT."**_

Blue looked round, and heard a whizzing noise as the shard of the Four Sword that had missed Green hurtled back at him. Green heard it too, and spun round. Too late. The shard hit him in the chest, sending him hurtling backwards into a pillar, blood spiralling through the air. Ganondorf laughed again, as the cloud shot into the earth at the foot of the Four Sword's pedestal. A second later, the ground fell away into a huge sinkhole, spiralling down, taking the four links screaming into the depths of the earth.

* * *

><p>The four links hurtled down through darkness, archaic energies whirling around them as they fell down through oblivion. All was silent in the space they left behind, until with a small tinkling, a ball of light blinked into existence. There was a cry, followed by panting, as the ball of light rapidly condensed, and flew downwards into the dark.<p> 


	4. Blue: Wounds

**Tanthachon25: Sorry everyone! **

**Red: Can someone help me get this penguin out of my ear?**

**Green: Where did that come from?**

**Tanthachon25:** **Señor ****pingüino,****se puede salir****de la oreja****roja****?**

**Vio: That penguin was…SPANISH?**

**Tanthachon25: Yeah…my imagination is seriously messed up. Anyway, I'm sorry that this took some time, as I've been weighed down with shedloads revision.**

**Li: Yeah. Revision sucks**

**Vio: Who are you? Where did you get that bolter?**

**Indi: Well, we-**

**Tanthachon25: NOOOOO! DON'T TELL THEM! THEY CANNOT KNOW! !**

Blue was the first one to come round. He lay on his back, looking up at the trees above him, eyes half closed. He smelled sandalwood, and painfully sat up, looking around him for any clue where he was. Suddenly, the memories came back to him thick and fast, the sword, Ganondorf, and then the fall. He looked at his hand, at the fragment of the Four Sword that had burrowed into his right palm. It still hurt like hell, but he managed to get to his feet. He looked around for the others.

"Green? Red? Vio? Where are you guys?" he muttered, as he ran through the forest, trying to find any trace of his friends. He ran for some time, until he was exhausted, and the sun started to go down. He sat down on a log, a lump forming in his throat. His mind went black.

"This is just great…"he murmured, his voice cracking. "…I've been dumped in a creepy forest, alone, powerless, I'm lost, my friends are probably dead and now Ganondorf's back and the Four Sword's gone!" his head slumped onto his knees. He rose slowly, and with a scream of rage, smashed his fist into the trunk of a tree, splintering the bark. "DAMN YOU GANODORF!" he screamed, punching the tree again and again, his anger pouring out of him like a tidal wave. At last, he stopped, and leant against the tree, breathing hard. He looked up, and his eyes widened, as he saw a piece of green fabric caught in the branches above him. Blue watched, as it was torn away from the branches, and fluttered away. Blue ran after it, through the darkening forest. The rag floated through the air, tumbling on the breeze, until it finally dropped to the ground in front of Blue. The boy picked it up, turning it in his hands. His heart almost stopped when he heard a low moan. Jumping, Blue looked around, and made a choking sound. Not far away from him was a clearing, illuminated in the moonlight and by the orange flicker of fire. And there, in the centre, just next to the fire, bound at the wrists and ankles, lying in a pool of blood and surrounded by cackling miniblins was…

"GREEN!" Blue's mind went grey and blank; he grabbed the nearest object, a rather hefty Thornwood branch and charged towards his fallen comrade. The nearest creature turned a Blue slammed into him at full speed, smashing it to the ground where it vaporised into black dust. The remaining miniblins turned in surprise, before picking up their sharp sticks and charging at this irritating morsel. Blue braced himself, and jumped over the leading creature, his makeshift club trailing out below him catching on the creatures head, pulling it down and backwards as Blue landed. He ducked one attack, dodged another before swinging the branch around him, slamming the nearest miniblin into its comrades in a devastating spin attack that left most of the group on the ground in various stages of vaporisation. The rest turned tail and ran, but Blue had found them only a few seconds ago surrounding one of his best friends, looking like they were going to have him for dinner. He wasn't going to let them get away with their lives.

In a matter of seconds, Blue had caught up with the remaining miniblins, and cut them down in vicious strokes of the branch, before throwing it like an oversized boomerang at the final creature. There was a faint squeal, and the last creature fell to the ground, where it vaporised. Blue turned and ran back to the clearing.

"Oh, no, no no no!" Blue fell to his knees beside Green, hastily untying the bonds around his comrade's wrists and ankles. He swore, fumbling with the crude but tight knots. Only then did he noticed an awkward sensation in his side, and looking down, he realised that he still had his belt, with the combat knife, still bloody after the encounter with the manticores, strapped to it. Blue drew out the long blade, which sliced easily through the bonds. Stripping the remaining strands of rope, Blue cut away Green's tunic, to get a good look at the wound, and was horrified at what he saw.

The wound covered most of Green's shoulder, and it was clear that it had narrowly missed the boy's lung. It had starting to heal very slightly, but there was a massive amount of damage. Blue could see the bloody shard of the Four Sword in amongst the torn flesh and splintered bone. His mind played back the final scene in the sanctuary. Green had spun round, as Ganondorf had seemingly directed the shard back at him. Blue could still feel the throbbing in his own hand where he himself had been hit. He felt Green's chest, feeling the faint heartbeat. He wondered what would happen if Green were to die. Maybe he and the others would die with him.

"Come on, please, don't die on me, don't you fucking die on me!" Blue muttered under his breath. He could hear Green's breath, rattling and irregular. It was only a matter of time. Green's lips moved, and an indistinguishable murmur escaped. Blue started, bending close to him. "Don't try to speak; it'll only make it worse." Blue reassured him, his calm voice surprising himself.

"Death…protect…I have to…protect…" Green's words were almost inaudible, trailing away into silence.

"No…" Blue's face became terror-struck, his voice cracking with emotion that had long since been buried deep in his soul. "No, please, for Fayore's sake, don't die. Don't leave me…"

Green's body fell still. Blue fell to the ground and cried.

* * *

><p><strong>Tanthachon25: Whoah, I'm not used to writing in this style. Suspense and titan chases are more of my thing. But I guess there's a first time for everything! <strong>


	5. Red: Vixens

**Blue: What the hell have you just done?**

**Tanthachon25: How do you mean?**

**Blue: What the hell do you mean how do I mean?**

**Vio: That statement was a bit contradictory.**

**Blue: Shuddup Vio, Tanth, you've scattered us about, injured us and very nearly killed Green!**

**Vio: There wasn't much point in asking him that if you already knew.**

**Blue: `punches Vio in the face'**

**Tanthachon25: You are forgetting one key element of any story…Major character protection!**

**Red: So Green's gonna be okay?**

**Tanthachon25: …me and my big mouth.**

A tingling sensation in his hand brought Red out of unconsciousness. He opened one eye, and saw he was lying in what appeared to be long grass. He could see out of the corner of his eye a bushy orange tail flicking about close to him. The boy turned his head slightly, and saw why his hand was tingling. When the Four Sword had exploded, Red hadn't escaped unharmed. He too had been hit in the wrist by a shard of the sword. He could see it now, burrowed into the flesh just below his palm, but to his surprise, there was no blood. Then Red saw the vixen.

It was a small creature, less than three months old. Red had seen vixens before, peering out of his window late at night, seeing them scamper across the garden. But this one was out in broad daylight, and its fur was much neater than those foxes. It was licking Red's wrist, lapping away the blood with gentle strokes of its tongue. It glanced at Red's face for a moment, and their eyes met. The vixen didn't seem frightened, but curious, as it slowly approached Red's face. As it did so, its tail brushed against his nose.

Red snorted, and sat up. The vixen jumped back, startled, but to the boy's surprise, it didn't run off. Instead, it jumped up, barking happily, as Red got to his feet. He bent down towards the vixen, intrigued. 'Why isn't he running away' Red thought, stroking the vixen's head, which almost seemed to purr in pleasure. Red made to stroke the vixen's golden flanks with his left hand, but found he couldn't move it. He looked down, and his eyes widened. Red had been to the hospital a few times before, and knew from biology** (1)** lessons about parts of the body. So when he looked at the wound on his wrist, Red noticed that the shard had severed the sinews connecting his. His hand was completely useless. He slumped to the ground, staring at his hand. The vixen whined quietly, and then carefully jumped into Red's lap. The boy smiled gratefully, feeling the creature's warmth against his chest, but his smile turned to a gasp as the vixen laid a paw on his wrist. It closed its eyes, and to Red's astonishment, the wound began to close, new sinew forming around the shard, skin stretching over the wound until all that was left was the metallic glint of the Four Sword shard, now surrounded by clean, unbroken flesh

"There we go now!" said the vixen "That better?"

Red stared, as the vixen jumped down off his lap, looking at him quizzically.

"Are you alright? The vixen asked, looking worried. Red was even more stunned by this. How can a vixen look worried? He asked himself, staring at the creature open-mouthed. "Helloo?" the vixen asked again, its voice getting louder.

"Fine…" Red was still staring at the vixen.

"Oh, I get it!" a look of understanding crossed the vixen's face, and it sat down "you're not used to talking animals, I forgot." Its voice was sweet, feminine, a little lower than Red's own voice.

Red was still speechless. "Wh-what are you?" he stammered, still staring at the vixen.

"Oh, it' not a question of what, more a question of who." The vixen appeared to laugh, some of it coming in little yaps, as its voice switched between vixen and human "But anyway, I am Natailie, daughter of Fayore, Goddess of the Wild. And you might be…"

"Uh… Red. Yamaha Red" Red was still looking stunned, not really comprehending what his eyes and ears were telling him, not really registering the fact that he'd just been woken up by the talking vixen whose mother was a god.

"Well then," Natailie "What could be the reason for you to be left unconscious on top of Elsor**(2)** Hill, alone and without any form of weaponry when there is so much evil activity in this area?"

Red's heart plummeted, as he remembered what had happened. Natailie seemed to notice, and as the boy began to recount everything that had happened, from the moment when the Four Sword had been drawn to the moment it had exploded, Ganondorf had been freed and the remnants of the sword had seriously wounded him and his friends. Towards the end, Red started to become a little tearful, and when Natailie asked him if he knew where the others were, he finally broke down.

"I-I'm sorry!" he sobbed "It's just that…I have no idea whether they are okay…maybe they...maybe they're already…I'm sorry." Red's head hung in shame, as a tear dripped off his nose "I-I guess I'm not brave enough after all."

Natailie looked into red's eyes, and he could see the warmth in her eyes. "Don't give up Red." she smiled, although this looked a little strange on a vixen's features. "From what you've told me, you're a lot braver than you think. Being frightened is natural. I'm sure Green, blue and Vio have also been scared at some point."

Red perked up a little, and he looked up at the vixen "you think so?"

"I know so!" She grinned, and looked up at the sky. Red had only just realised that it was getting dark, and looked around warily. He remembered that darkness gave strength to evil. Natailie seemed to read his mind, and said that they'd camp out here. Red was about to say that he hadn't brought a tent, but Natalie clearly had a different idea, and was already digging. Within three minutes, Red and the vixen were sitting in a large underground chamber, hewn out of the earth and lit by a small pile of burning grass that red had collected and had set alight with two stones

"You need some sleep" Natailie curled up by the entrance of the den, looking out of the hole. "I'll make sure we aren't disturbed."

Red curled up beside the small fire. His head was full of worries about the others, but for the moment, he himself was safe. The warmth of the den made him drowsy, and within a few minutes, he was asleep.

Red woke. A small stirring in the earth around him had caused a little soil to fall onto him. Red wrinkled his nose, and sat up inside the den, listening. Nearby, Natailie had curled up, her tail wrapped round herself, sleeping quietly. Nearby, he could hear voices. Being careful not to bump his head on the ceiling, Red crawled up the shaft, and came up once more in the long grass. He could hear the voices clearly now. He recognised them as the gruff, monotonous tones of a pair of moblins.** (3) **He dared not poke his head up above the grass, lest they see him, but carefully crawled through the grass as silent as a cat, towards the voices. So intent on following the voices was he that Red almost tumbled down a precipice. He backed up, parted the blades of grass in front of him, and saw an astonishing sight.

He was perched on the lip of a small cliff, about a five-meter drop to a kind of grassy platform, where the moblins stood. Beyond this, there was a sheer drop, the bottom obscured by a thick canopy of trees that stretched away as far as the eye could see.

"I'm a really long way from home." Red murmured. He then turned his gaze to the two moblins. One carried a halberd, with a vicious iron blade. The other held a bow in one hand, with a quiver of arrows in slung across his back. The archer moblin was staring at something held in the halberd-moblin was holding in his hand, the halberd itself stuck in the ground. The creature's great bulk was obscuring the object. The two were talking now.

"…worthless piece of tripe!" Bow moblin was saying, and he snorted. "What's point of keeping? Just fancy stick."

Halberd moblin looked slightly crestfallen "Fancy stick with red light. Look pretty, I keep. Look pretty." He held the object out, and with a gasp, Red saw what it was. There was no mistaking the long wooden shaft, the ornate wooden claw design gripping the pulsing crimson orb at the top. It was Red's fire rod, which he thought he'd lost when he had appeared here. Unfortunately, he'd given himself away, and the two moblins turned.

"What was noise?" **(4) **Halberd asked, turning round as Red ducked out of sight.

"Let find out!" Bow drew an arrow, a heavy formidable affair with an iron tip. In a flurry, he drew the bow, and shot the arrow at the face of the small precipice, just below where Red had been. The arrow exploded on impact, sending soil, stones, grass and a stunned Red tumbling down. Red looked up, dizzily, as Halberd stood over him, weapon in hand.

"Dinnertime!" Halberd roared, as bow came up behind his companion, licking his lips. Red closed his eyes, waiting for the piercing blow that would surely end his life. But it didn't come. There was a bark, and a streak of brown shot from the grass, hitting Halberd full in the face with a thump, driving the moblin to the floor and causing him to relinquish his hold on both the halberd, and Red's fire rod. Red sprang up, picking up the halberd as Natailie, teeth bared and angry launched herself at Bow, while Halberd tried to get to his feet. With his free hand, Red grabbed the fire rod and charged. The moblin wasn't ready for him, as it takes some time to get over being hit in the face by a vixen, and Red was still amazingly agile. He jumped over the creature's head, drove the halberd between Halberd's shoulder blade, and as the moblin howled and turned towards him, Red found the button on the rod and pressed it.

A huge sheet of flame shot from the glowing orb, incinerating both Halberd and his halberd, and blasting any remnants off the precipice, down towards the forest. Red turned to see Bow, bruised and cut from Natailie's attacks, barrel towards the vixen. She dodged, and as Red skidded to a halt beside her, Bow stumbled blindly over the edge of the cliff and down, down to join what was left of his companion. As soon as the scream had ended, Natailie turned on Red

"How am I supposed to protect you if you insist on wandering off in the middle of the night?" she stormed. Red hung his head a little.

"I was just curious. And I did find my fire rod!" he said quietly.

"Curiosity killed the cat, but that's not the point." The anger in the Vixen's face drained away, to be replaced by concern "They could've killed _you_"

"Yes, I'm sorry."

"But anyway, you were impressive, and as you said, we did get your fire rod back!" Natailie smiled, and red was just about to say 'thank you' when there was a bang like a cannon-shot. Both spun round, and watched in awe as a huge purple explosion filled the sky. Red gasped, Natailie cringed, and both thought the same thing at the same time.

"_Vio"_

**(1) Yes, Red took biology for GSCEs**

**(2) A hill named after Elzo, from the minish cap**

**(3) Yes, moblins can talk here**

**(4) 'Ze sound of progress, my friend!" lol**

**Tanthachon25: Whoah, That took less than two days! And I just invented Natailie on the spot! Inspiration or what? **


	6. Vio: Thorns

**Tanthachon25: Ah! No more revision to do now…apart from the assessments that need doing next…sad face.**

**Blue: Sucks to be you!**

**Tanthachon25: Lucky sonofabismarck, you don't have GSCEs in Hyrule!**

**Red: Yes we do! You mentioned previously I'd taken biology!**

**Tanthachon25: Damn. **

**Natailie: Cheer up! At least you don't have to forage for food every night.**

**Tanthachon25: But that's your choice, you're a half-god of nature, you could just make food appear!**

**Natailie: …**

***awkward silence***

Vio woke to the sound of incoherent jabbering. He listened carefully, as the jabbering came closer. It was coming from below him. He could feel something digging into his back in several places, and something cool and smooth rested on his chest, which felt slightly cold. There was a pain in his temple, and Vio could feel something warm trickling down his forehead. The one in Vio's shoulder where his arm had been dislocated in the glider crash had faded, although his wrist hurt a lot from where he'd been hit by a piece of the Four Sword. The nattering came up on a level with him now, and Vio risked a glance through a half-closed eye.

He was lying in what appeared to be a great tree, a hugely tall silverpine. Above him, the branches were cracked and split, some hanging down. One bough had fallen, and narrowly missed him, although some of the leafy end was covering the boy's chest, where both the deep purple tunic and the thin white undershirt had been torn to shreds, and now lay in tatters. A few feet above him, hanging on one of the boughs, was his leather shoulder belt, still carrying his crossbow and his copy of 'World Legends and Realities'. His eye flicked to the trunk of a tree, where a squat, lanky creature had just emerged. It looked as if the creature had just been climbing the trunk. It was emitting the jabbering noise, and as it approached Vio, the jabbering grew louder and faster. The creature clearly was excited, and as the boy took in the impish features and slightly yellow complexion, Vio recognised it as a forest-dwelling Blin, a goblin.

The creature was now extremely close to Vio, and as it put one foot on Vio's chest, it brought out a crude stone knife. Vio's mind raced, anticipating what would happen in an instant, and as the creature brought the knife down, he rolled sideways, grabbing his belt and slinging it over his shoulder while the Blin turned round, and ran at Vio. _No sense at all, _Vio thought, as he pulled out his crossbow and used the hardened sycamore-iron lathe of the weapon to block the knife stroke, and smack the Blin right between the eyes. Stunned for a moment, it reeled back, onto a leafy part of the huge branch the two were fighting on. Vio came after him, but stopped, as with a crack, the leafy bough snapped off, and the two were suddenly hurtling down towards the forest floor.

The Blin's jabbering increased in volume as the two hurtled down through the tree, hitting and snapping off branches every time they went through another layer of the great pine tree. Vio felt a stinging sensation then in almost every part of the body, as they crashed through the forest canopy. Vines whipped all around them, and in a confusing moment of dizziness, Vio felt something painful tighten around his chest, his legs, his arms, every part of him, and he jerked to a halt, just above a jabbering pack of Blins. They looked up, as the Blin Vio had been fighting hurtled through the leaves above them and hit the forest floor with a sickening spat, where it disintegrated into a puddle of black goo, which was quickly soaked up by the soil.

The creatures looked up, and spotted Vio hanging above them, suspended by the vines that had been entwined randomly around the boy. They started cackling gleefully, at the prospect of defenceless food hanging above them. The pain increased everywhere the vines had touched Vio, and it was only when his hand, barely movable, brushed against something sharp, that he realised his fall had been broken by thorn vines, which had already pierced the skin. The ones on his chest were slowly digging in deeper, as the boy's weight became more centred on the vines across his torso. He felt a warm liquid sliding down his arms, across his chest, and watched in horror as his own blood dripped down to the forest floor. This was too much for Vio, and he passed out.

* * *

><p>Some while later, Vio regained consciousness. He was hanging once more in a tree, but suspended above a campfire, set up in a clearing. The tree he was hanging from leant over the clearing and the smoke from the fire made it difficult to breathe. Below him, he could hear the chattering of the Blins, and he watched as the group seemed to dance around the campfire, waving their arms in the air as the fire blazed higher with every log one of the creatures threw in. The vines had been removed, but Vio was now hanging by a tightly wound rope wrapped around his arms and legs, suspended to the tree. His body still stung with the amount of thorn wounds, and it felt as if the Blins hadn't been too delicate when removing the vines. Vio closed his eyes, tried to ignore the pain, and thought.<p>

Putting the facts together, Vio had worked out what had happened between now and when the four of them had been sucked down that sinkhole and into another dimension. The smashed branches and the lack of a tunic when he'd woke up indicated that he had crash-landed, so had probably been pulled back into reality high above the forest. The things digging into his back had been the sprouting from the branch he had landed on, and when he and that Blin had stepped onto the leafy part, it had snapped off. This last bit was obvious, but thinking helped calm Vio down. He turned his head slightly, and saw the glow of more fires through the trees. _There must be several more Blin tribes in this forest_, He thought.

Vio remembered the last time he'd been in a forest alone. Shadow link had appeared to him then, and offered him the chance to join darkness. Vio had taken it, but had only used it as a means to destroy shadow. _No!_ His thoughts sounded in his head. _I didn't mean that! _But some part of him was denying this._ You went along with it, when Green destroyed Shadow, you could've saved him. He would still be here if you hadn't gone with Green. That's all you do, follow orders. Yes but it wouldn't be the same Shadow that defeated the darkness! _His first thoughts said indignantly. _It would've been the old, power-mad shadow that tried to kill us several times over! People change. _Said his second thoughts simply, and his third thoughts were about to respond, when a voice whispered in his ear.

"Hold still!" the voice whispered urgently, and there was suddenly the sound of oaksteel slicing through rope. There was a small snap, and one of Vio's arms flopped down beside him, the rope cut. "You're gonna need to hold onto this!" the voice spoke again, as a length of rope, previously used to hold his arm, dropped down. Vio took it in his free hand, and lifted it up to his other hand, and grasped it in that hand. With another snap, the ropes round his legs were cut, and Vio swung forwards into the leafy crown of the tree, into the arms of an ochre-clad boy, steadying him as Vio let go of the rope and landed on the branch.

"Come on, run!" the boy grabbed Vio's wrist, and the two boys jumped down from branch to branch, slid down the trunk of the tree and landed on the forest floor, and ran. They ran for about ten minutes through the forest, putting as much distance between them and the Blin camp. Finally, as the sun started to go down, the two boys stopped in a clearing on the edge of the forest. Here, the trees were thick and tall, and one side of the clearing was replaced by the face of a huge cliff.

"There we go!" The boy panted, as Vio came to a stop beside him "they shouldn't follow us now."

"Thanks for saving me back there," Vio looked at the boy. "I'd have been stuffed if you hadn't turned-" Vio caught a glimpse of the boy's face, and recoiled in shock. The boy's face was almost identical to his own. The boy looked quizzical, and cocked his head slightly.

"What is it?" he asked, looking at Vio with surprise, who was backing away from him, looking terrified. "Do I have two heads or something?"

"Your face!" Vio barely managed to gasp. "We're identical! What are you?"

"My name is Takento Yellow, and yes, it is a bit weird that we look identical. And what might your name be?" Yellow's voice was quite high, somewhere in-between Green's and Red's.

"V-Vio" Vio stammered "Konoko Vio."

"And how may I ask did you come to be tied up and hanging above a Blin camp, covered in scratches and with a piece of shrapnel embedded in your arm?" Yellow spoke quickly and fluently, as if language was a gift and he wanted to make the most of it.

"It's a really long story!" Vio breathed, sitting down on a log and breathing hard, trying to calm himself.

"Well, it's a long time until the sun comes up, so if you get ready to tell me, you know, compose yourself and stuff, I'll go get a fire going , as it looks like we're going to be camping here for the night!" again, Yellow spoke rapidly, so fast that Vio barely managed to keep up with it.

As Yellow went around gathering sticks, humming tunelessly to himself, Vio did as he said, and composed himself. His mind was whirring at full capacity. Was Yellow just a demon in disguise? Was he one of the other links just dressed in yellow and trying to trick him, or one of the links but brainwashed into believing that he was a different person? Or maybe, was Yellow the missing link, the one who hadn't quite made it to the sanctuary, intercepted en-route? Was he the one to complete the chain, the chain which would bring the evil down, just as the prophecy said? Vio was so lost in thought that he barely noticed when Yellow dumped a bundle of wood down, and lit it with a flint and tinder in a pouch at his waist.

"There we go!" he grinned, pulling a log near to the fire and snapping Vio out of his reverie. "So why did you come to be here, Vio?"

Vio told him everything. He told him about Link, the Four Sword, Green Red and Blue, Shadow link and Vaati. He told him about Zelda, the maidens, Aarghus and Erune. He told him about them being scattered, the tower of fire, his attempted execution and Ganondorf. He told him everything that had happened from the start of his existence to the moment when Yellow had discovered him. The new link was a very good listener, occasionally responding with "No way!", "You actually did that?" and other exclamations. As Vio concluded, Yellow whistled.

"You've been through the dark world and back my friend!" Yellow patted Vio on the back, "I could never have done what you've done. Eyeshotting a great big quid from hell while it's holding onto your leg with one of its tentacles? Now that takes skill!"

"Thanks!" Vio murmured, smiling. He found himself warming to Yellow; he was the kind of person who can just make people like him. Vio admired that. At school, in the years between their first adventure and the start of this one, the only friends he had were the others, and they were often in different classes. He usually sat alone, as despite the fact that he had helped save the world, people avoided him, and treated as someone to respect, but also as an outcast. It felt good to make a friend. With the others, he just became used to them, although it still bugged him when Blue went into a rage. He had to be with them through the first quest, there was just no other option.

As the fire died down, Yellow started to drift off to sleep. Vio watched him, unable to sleep. He kept wondering where the others were, and whether, like last time, they were immensely far away. He wondered whether Green was as always determined to find them. Maybe Blue was wandering blindly into a trap, and he imagined that Red would've given up hope by now. He lay down on the cool soil, listening to the sounds of the forest, and was just about to drift off, when…

BOOM!

A bright white light seared itself into Vio's eyes, as something amongst the dying embers of the fire went off with the force of a small cannon exploding. Vio sat up sharply, but couldn't see anything due to a huge pink afterglow. Blinking several times, Vio bent down, and pulled a silvery shard of charcoal from the fire, being careful not to touch the hot embers. He set the piece of charcoal down next to him, and brought out his copy of 'World Legends and Realities' and flicked through to the botanical section. Vio barely looked through this, a Zelda was the only one he knew who liked plants, but he had seen something interesting in it a few weeks back. He found the right page as yellow, whose reactions were clearly dazed, sat up sharply, looking around.

"What just went boom-boom?" he asked urgently, looking around for the source of the explosion. Vio shushed him, absorbed in what he was reading.

_The magnesyew (Taxus Ballistia) is a tree that grows in super-tropic environments, and is renowned for its silvery wood. However, the bark of a magnesyew is an unremarkable brown and is not easily spotted. Once the bark has been removed the wood of a magnesyew is highly inflammable, and is used by Gerudo tribes in the making of explosives and ammunition for the .88 bore Doroq-pattern hellcannon (see page 231). However, the tree is also dangerous naturally, as forest-clearing and burning can often cause sudden and devastating explosions which have claimed the lives of-_

"There it is!" Vio shouted aloud, making Yellow jump and almost fall off the log he was sitting on. "This," he held up the piece of charcoal "is magnesyew, that explains the explosion!" a plan was forming in Vio's mind, and Yellow was looking dumbstruck "Sometimes trees take in tiny particles of wood from other trees when they decay, often forming impurities in the wood. There must be a magnesyew grove near where we take roencopper cuttings for explosive crossbow bolts!" Vio was getting carried away now, his calm voice rising in excitement. "The explosions there are quite small, but can still destroy a mud hut in a single blast. Only a tiny amount of this thing must've burnt up to produce the explosion just now, so if we lit this whole piece, we could create an explosion so powerful it could be seen for hundreds of miles!"

"Why would we want to make an explosion, we'd just blow ourselves up! Hang on…" Yellow's voice trailed off. "…are you saying we could dump this in the blin camp, and destroy it?"

"No!" Vio grinned "we'll use it as a signal flare!" Vio looked at Yellow. "Do you have a knife?" he asked.

"Yeah." Yellow held up a short bushknife

"String?" Vio asked again.

"Hang on a minute…" Yellow took the pouch off his belt and pulled out the string from the brim, and handed it to Vio.

"Awesome." Vio sat down, took the knife and started whittling away the piece of charcoal, stripping away the black coating and revealing the wonderfully pure silver wood underneath. He then stripped some of the wood off of the tip, and began rounding the piece, until it became a cylinder. Yellow collected up the shavings as Vio carved and buried them in a small hole. After about half an hour, Vio held up a bullet-shaped piece of magnesyew, with a small piece of string trailing out of it. Yellow looked at it, before smiling at Vio.

"So how are we gonna get this up there?" Yellow asked. But Vio was already working. He took a small piece of wood, lit it against the embers of the fire, and put it in a little clamp on his crossbow, which he had taken off his belt and was now cocked and loaded with the new bolt. Vio took out the burning wood, and lit the string at the end of the bolt, aiming the crossbow straight up.

"Hold onto your ears!" Vio yelled, and he pulled the trigger. The bolt shot upwards, the burning string making a little trail light as it streaked skywards. Vio threw the crossbow aside and covered his ears. The next second, the sky was torn apart by a titanic explosion, so large it blanched out the stars and made the ground shake. And the noise! The two boys were literally blasted off their feet by the soundwave alone. A few kilometres away, a Blin accidently was looking in the same direction as the explosion, and was left permenantly blinded. The two boys looked up, and saw a huge purple fireball hovering in the air for a few seconds before it burnt itself out.

"Signal flare? Pah!" Yellow cried at the night air "Eat airborne ordinance detonation!"

Vio turned to him. "And hopefully, my friends have seen that."

"How could they NOT see that?" Yellow cried. "you almost blew up the SKY for Din's sake!"

Vio raised his fist. Yellow raised his, and the two bashed them together in a mark of respect. The two laughed joyfully. They didn't hear the footsteps behind them. They didn't see the black shape emerging from a cave in the cliff face. They only noticed the black figure when it gasped. Vio froze in fear, Yellow stiffened, although Vio noticed his hand creeping towards the knife that Vio had handed back earlier.

"Free…" the figure rasped. "I'm free at last! Thank you Ganondorf!" It cried out to the night. "And now, I must find the Links. Oh, I am looking forward to meeting them again!" This was too much for Yellow. In a swift movement, he drew the knife, spun round and threw it at the black figure. It cried out, and fell back. Vio walked over to it, and cried out in shock. He recognised the face, and now Yellow was staring too. Lying on the ground, blood already turning the black tunic darker and with Yellow's knife embedded in his shoulder was…

"Shadow!"


	7. Gathering Shadows

**Yellow: Woo hoo! All major characters introduced!**

**Tanthachon25: Yeah and that last chapter only took one day to write!**

**Shadow: SPEEEEEEED WRITING!**

**Red: YAYAYAYAYAYAY!**

**Natailie: Party time!**

***sound of multiple party poppers going off***

As the great fireball faded from the sky, several things happened at once. Blue looked up, saw the violet tinge to the blast, and jumped to his feet. Murmuring to himself, he picked up Green's limp body and began to walk towards where the blast had come from. Red immediately started scrambling down the cliff like a mountain goat, heading towards the clearing where he could already see two figures illuminated in the afterglow of a fire. And far away, thousands of demons lifted their heads and roared, as they began to head towards the place where it had come from.

* * *

><p>Blue trudged through the night, murmuring softly to Green. He'd been taking the boy's pulse at regular intervals, and while it was faint, he hadn't succumbed to death. Blue had done his best to dress the wound with strips torn from his tunic, but there was nothing more he could do. Green needed serious help, and his only hope of getting his comrade out alive was to re-group with the others and get out of here. He would've run as fast as he could towards the site of the blast, but he worried that running would do more harm than good. The boy had passed into a coma some three hours earlier, but the faint pulse told him that Green was not dead yet.<p>

Blue resisted the urge to run, even though the roars of multiple demons was growing louder and louder. He realised that Vio's flare must've attracted the attention of thousands of the creatures, now charging towards the spot where it had been launched from. And they were catching up with them.

* * *

><p>Red slid down the cliff face, occasionally slowing himself with his hands. Natailie bounded after him, keeping to the ledges and yelling words of caution to the boy, who took no notice. His thoughts were so full of excitement that he almost forgot to slow himself down during the rapid descent. <em> I'll be so happy when we're all together again! <em>He thought to himself, giggling in happiness. He looked down, and saw that the ground was rushing up to him incredibly quickly. Red spotted a patch of ferns and leapt into them, landing gently amongst the cool fronds. A few seconds later, Natailie landed beside him with a small _thwump_. Red smiled at the Vixen, and then carefully parted the ferns to get a good look. He gulped in fear, a bead of sweat running down his cheek.

The clump of ferns was just a few strides away from the edge of the clearing, but Red could see that getting there would not be easy. He could see three figures, one lying face-up on the grass, the other two bent down beside him. And lurking on the edge of the clearing, cloaked in shadows were all the nightmares in the world. Partly liquidized octoroks that dissolved each other into sticky black goo whenever two of them touched, hulking moblins covered in fresh animal pelts and drenched in blood that they had covered themselves with, and much worse waited in the shadows. Red knew what was happening. They were preparing to attack.

"We've got to warn them!" Red whispered, and made to burst out of the ferns, but Natailie stopped him.

"And how do you propose we do that?" She asked. "I myself am not too keen on the prospect of charging through that lot, as death is the most likely possibility."

"But if we don't," Red continued, his voice cracking. "They re gonna die. I can't watch them die Natailie, they're my best friends!" Red burst into tears. "I-I don't want them t-to die, they're all…all I have in this world!"

Natailie put her paw on his shoulder, trying to comfort the boy. But she knew that it was impossible to get to them without being killed themselves. There was nothing they could do.

* * *

><p>"Oh Naryu! I think I killed him!" Yellow's voice was panicked, and tears were streaming down his face. "I-I swear I didn't mean to, Vio! I just acted! I thought…"<p>

Vio knelt by the side of his dark counterpart, whispering quietly to the boy, whose face was pale and his breathing ragged and uneven. His eyes were closed, his pale lips contorted into a grimace of pain. The purple Link carefully removed the knife from Shadow's chest, laying it down carefully next to him. He used Yellow's knife to cut away the boy's tunic, ripping away a strip of the black cloth and holding it against the wound.

"Come on, Shadow, don't die, please don't die now, after everything…" his voice trailed off, as the boy's features relaxed. Vio frantically checked his pulse, and sighed with relief. Yellow, who was looking nervous at Vio's change of state, **(1) **looked at him for an explanation.

"He's fallen into a deep sleep." Vio had seemingly read Yellow's thoughts. "He won't be fully stable until we properly dress the wound and stop any more blood getting out, but he'll be okay."

"Thank the Goddesses!" Yellow sighed, and sat down heavily. "I'm really sorry for what happened. If I had known who he was, I never would've-" Vio cut him off with a wave of his hand.

"It was a complete accident." Vio looked at Yellow, and the latter was drawn into those sharp blue eyes. It was as if Vio was hypnotising him, beaming the boy's calmness into his own heart and steadying him. "You were defending yourself. And anyway, I find grudges get in the way a lot." Vio looked back at Shadow, who was sleeping peacefully. He threw away the blood-soaked piece of cloth that he had been pressing against the boy's chest and took off one of the ragged scraps of purple cloth from the remains of his lacerated tunic and carefully wrapped it under Shadow's arms and across his chest, binding it in place with more strips of cloth to form a vague A shape across his chest. Vio smiled, and stroked the boy's hair. He had forgotten how…how…Vio couldn't find the words to describe it. _Beautiful?_ He wasn't sure, but something deep inside him stirred for the first time in two years. When Shadow had faded from reality in those last moments on the sky-tall tower, Vio had tried to disguise the emotional pain that had coursed through his body like acid. For the last two years or so, he had been very sad, and even in moments of joy, it was still there, eating at the back of his mind like a worm. Many a night Vio had buried his face in his pillow and cried himself to sleep. It was as if Shadow was a part of him, a part which had been cruelly ripped out. Now, that piece was being restored, and the emotion that coursed through his body was stronger than ever, pushing his mind back and forcing it to believe that…Vio didn't even want to admit it himself, but he knew deep down, that it was true. _He was in love._

A cry of fear broke Vio's train of thought. Yellow was staring, horrified at the edge of the clearing. "Did you just see that?" he whimpered.

"What? What did you see?" Vio was instantly on his feet, sliding his last dart into the groove of the crossbow, his thoughts collecting. Yellow was looking more scared than ever now.

"Som…something terrible…" he whispered, and now Vio could see what he had seen. Emerging from the edge of the clearing was a figure, nine feet tall and as wide as a treetrunk. It's skin was scarred and pitted, stained a deep red, and it was covered with what the boys knew only too well as human skins. The creature was carrying a vicious, rusty cast iron axe that was almost as tall as he was. And behind him, came other horrors, emerging from the shadows at the edge of the clearing, and the boys realised that they were surrounded.

"What do we do now, Vio?" Yellow asked, his voice cracking with fear. "What do we do?"

Vio pushed the bolt on his crossbow forwards into the firing position , put the butt of the weapon into his shoulder and aimed at the largest creature, answering Yellow's question in two words.

"We fight."

**(1) No, not that kind of state change . I'd be worried if Vio started randomly melting into a puddle of stuff!  
><strong>

**Tanthachon25: WOOOOOO! Cliffhanger! And actually, I'm not really used to doing romancy stuff, so please tell me what you think!**


	8. Fear and Fire

**Yellow: …so much for party time.**

**Vio: Great, another round of attempted death. **

**Tanthachon25: I'll buy the next round, Vio as long as you can handle your close-quarters fighting.**

**Shadow: Come on! You know that Vio is more of a stand-back-and-shoot-in-the-face kinda guy!**

**Blue: Yeah, Vio you can't handle your close-combat or your liquor! **

**Vio: I will prove to you that I can! Tanth set me up for a good battle and Blue, I challenge you to a drinking game in the bit of text at the start of the next chapter!**

With a low growl, the circle of demons on the edge of the clearing closed in on the three boys, eager for the taste of human flesh straight off the bone. The larger creature strode forward confidently, his axe cradled in one hand. It was going to be so sweet, it thought. He couldn't wait to hear their screams when he'd tear them limb from limb and feast on their entrails before they were even dead. He loped closer, grinning horribly, at the prospect of fresh meat.

For the first time in his life, Vio was properly terrified. There was no way out, and they were horribly outnumbered. He had only one bolt left, Shadow was completely incapacitated and he had no idea where Red, Blue or Green were, or if they were still even alive. His hands began to shake, messing up his aim. He would waste the bolt if he fired now. Vio began to back up towards the cliff face, and as his back pressed against the stone, a thought struck him.

"Are you a good climber?" he asked Yellow, voice calm but wavering.

"Well, not bad," Yellow admitted, paying more attention to the crowd of demons that was closing in on them. "But it's been some time since I last went up on-"

"Get Shadow and climb up out of their reach!" Vio yelled, as the growling rose significantly in volume "I'll cover you until you're secure, and then I'll follow."

"You won't have time to-" Yellow objected, but Vio cut across him.

"Just do it will you!" He yelled in a voice so loud and determined that Yellow blanched a little. "Go, before they get us all!"

Yellow ran over to Shadow, lifted him up over his shoulder and walked slowly to the rock face. Slowly and carefully, he began to climb, all too wary of his passenger. It was hard, although the rock face wasn't completely vertical, it was still difficult with an extra person's weight, and Yellow was exhausted by the time he and Shadow were about fourteen feet up on a small ledge about a metre wide. As he propped Shadow's body against the side, he was aware that the grunting of the largest creature was much closer. The boy looked down, and saw with horror that the creature was less than five metres away from Vio, who had slung his crossbow onto his back and was now climbing up the cliff, a mere four feet from the ledge. Yellow reached out a hand, trying to pull him up.

With a roar of anger, the creature swung a giant fist at the rock face below Vio, shaking the rock and sending pieces breaking off from the rock, including the pieces that Vio's feet were standing on. He cried out in alarm, and jumped for a handhold as he found himself unsupported. The boy's scrabbling hand found a hold, and he hung there, as the creature below him raised his axe and roared in delight. Yellow reached out his hand, and Vio reached for it, grabbing the boy's wrist and felt as Yellow took his weight, and began to haul him up. Then there was a whistle, and an arrow buried itself in the rock a millimetre away from Yellow's arm, pinning his wrist to the rock. Yellow gasped in shock, and in that one moment, Vio's hand slipped out of his, and the boy fell. The creature below roared in triumph, preparing to spear his quarry on the blade of the axe, Vio twisted round in mid-air to face his attacker and Yellow, ripping the sleeve of his lack undershirt in an attempt to dislodge the arrow, shut his eyes and waited for the horrible slicing of flesh and the roar of triumph from the creature below that…didn't come.

Yellow opened his eyes and looked down. In slow motion, he watched as Vio missed the blade, grabbing the handle on the way down and pulling it down with him. There was a soft thud as the blade embedded in the soft ground, and as the creature roared in annoyance and tried to pull it out, Vio put a foot on the handle, jumped onto the creature's back, spinning round in mid-air and firing the last bolt through the creature's head. The boy landed lightly with a small 'thump', as the creature's body toppled forwards and hit the ground hard. The crowd of demons closing in stopped in surprise, as their tiny brains tried to comprehend what had just happened, and it slowly dawned on them that this little canapé of a human had just killed their leader almost effortlessly. They bellowed in unison, and charged, each determined to smash up the irritating canapé and eat it.

Vio, still calm as ever, wrenched the dead creature's battle-axe out of the ground, planted his feet wide apart, and waited. The first creature that reached him was a moblin, carrying a crude stone spear and covered in bloody wolf pelts. It had lowered his spear and charged in the usual head-on tactic that was the only fighting manoeuvre they knew. Vio backed against the wall, and as the creature ran up to him, he sidestepped neatly, and as the spear shattered against the rock face, Vio swung the axe at the creature's back, embedding the blade deep into the creature's spine with a sickening crack. Another moblin charged, and Vio jumped over it, grabbing the spear handle and pulling it up with him while smacking the beast between the eyes with the sycamore-iron lathe of the crossbow. The creature let go of the spear, and as Vio span round and stabbed it in the head, he smiled. He now had a weapon.

The next minute was hard to remember for Vio in the future. It mainly consisted of a lot of demons coming at him at once and a rapid succession of strikes, slashes and the occasional jump attack. Several parts stuck better in his memory, for example a bow moblin that came at him in the first ten seconds, dealt with in two seconds. Vio had snapped the bowstring as the creature had drawn it, which twanged back into its face, while Vio had darted behind it, pulled its quiver off its shoulder, slotted a heavy ashlead arrow into the groove of his own crossbow and blasted the creature (and several more in close proximity to it) into dust. About fifty seconds later, a Big Blin smashed through the crowd of demons circling Vio, and brought the heavy club down at him. The boy dodged, and as the creature swung the club back round to try and catch him, Vio jumped over the club and, slamming another arrow onto the crossbow's groove, shot an arrow point blank into the back of the creature's knee. It toppled forward, and as it hit the ground, Vio reloaded, climbed up onto the creature's back and shot a second arrow into the creature's brain. He jumped down, swept a moblin's legs out from under it and smacked it in the head with the blunt end of the spear. Vio's head snapped round as with a roar, an ogre-like creature barrelled towards him. Vio tried to dodge, but the creature outstretched its arm and caught him a glancing blow to the head, sending the boy flying backwards into the cliff. Stunned, he tried to get to his feet as the creature bore down on him.

Suddenly, there was a flash of brown, and something small, furry and angry hit the creature in the face, pushing it into the ground. At the same time, a figure leapt out of the undergrowth and landed next to Vio, drawing an arm back and pointing the object in his hand at the remaining creatures. The figure turned his head towards him, and Vio gasped.

"Red?" Vio's mouth dropped open, as Red flicked the switch on his fire rod and sent a sheet of flame at the remaining demons, which scattered in panic. As soon as they were out of sight, Red turned and glomped Vio in a huge hug.

"I'M SOOO GLAD YOU'RE OKAY!" Red squealed. Vio staggered a little under his weight, but managed to regain his balance.

"Yeah, okay, you're kinda crushing me!" Vio gasped. Red didn't look it, but he was surprisingly strong, and usually got a bit carried away when hugging people. He let go of Vio and blushed a little.

"Sorry…" he murmured. "I'm just glad you're alright!"

"Same," Vio smiled. "I'm assuming you saw the flare."

"I have to say," came a voice from somewhere near Vio's feet "That given the size of the blast," Vio stared, as Natailie jumped up onto red's shoulder and wrapped her tail around his neck. "And the fact that we were less than thirty strides from it, it was impossible for us not to see it."

"Ohhkay, it's a talking fox." Vio looked surprised, but Red knew that it would take a lot more than a talking fox to surprise him.

"Vixen, actually." Natailie looked Vio up and down. "And from what Red has told me, you must be Vio!"

"Yes…" Vio's voice trailed off, and a thought struck him. "Oh Din! I forgot!" he swore, turning and beginning to climb the rock face behind him. Red looked puzzled, as Vio disappeared from view. A few seconds later, Red gasped, as Yellow, carrying Shadow who had now come round, climbed down the cliff, followed by Vio. When Yellow reached the bottom, he rested Shadow against the cliff, who tilted his head back to look up at Red.

"Hey Red!" he smiled weakly. "How've you been?"

Red looked dumbstruck, looking from Vio, to Yellow, to Shadow. "What…how…you….how come…?" He babbled.

"Yeah, I forgot the introductions, sorry." Vio grinned. "This," he gestured to Yellow, who waved at Red, one sleeve ripped from where it had been hit by the arrow. "is Takento Yellow, who has already saved my life less than an hour ago."

"So where are the others?" red asked, looking around in the hope that Green and Blue might spring out from some other hiding place.

"Not sure," Vio looked around, just in case his counterparts were somewhere around. "But since you got sucked back into existence not that far away from here, I would assume that Blue and Green are within…" Vio put a finger to his temple "…two or three miles of her at the most. They'll find us Red, don't you worry!"

Vio looked out into the depths of the forest. _I just hope they're okay._ He thought.


	9. Rubble and Reunions

**Vio: Well, those issues seem to be cleared up! **

'**Kicks Blue's sleeping body'**

**Shadow: how did you kill so many dudes there? I thought you were a stand-back-and-shoot-in-the-face person!**

**Vio: If I may draw an example from the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook, an assault marine with two bolt pistols can dish out the same number of attacks in close combat as another assault marine with two chainswords, despite the difference in armament. So it follows that a stand-back-and-shoot-in-the-face person can in fact do as much damage if not more in combat than an up-close-and-slice-your-face-off-person!**

**Red: Who would've thought that Blue would pass out after only four rounds of drink?**

**Tanthachon25: Stop changing the subject, fool!**

Princess Zelda opened her weary eyes. For some reason, she was so tired, and barely managed to keep her eyes open for more than a few seconds before they slid shut again. It felt like only three seconds later that she opened her eyes again, but the different level of light coming through her eyelids told her that she had drifted off to sleep. She looked up slightly, and suddenly felt all of her tiredness drain away in a sudden rush of fear. She got hurriedly to her knees, beads of sweat running down her face, staring in horror at the scene in front of her.

The Four Sword sanctuary had been obliterated. The mural that would've sat behind the pedestal had been blasted apart, and fragments of it had been scattered across the surrounding area. The walls that had enclosed the sanctuary were little more than crumbling ruins, and where the pedestals that held the sword should've been, the earth had collapsed into a deep crater, the sides uneven where rocks and soil had tumbled down. She looked around for any trace of the links, but instead saw the Blue Maiden, face down on the grass. Zelda ran over to her, and shook her awake.

"Wha-what happened?" she said, aghast, looking around. The woman got to her feet beside the princess, staring wild-eyed at the carnage around them. "Where are the others?" she asked, looking around anxiously. At these words, a pea-green shape sat up beside one of the pieces of mural. Both of them gasped, as the Green Maiden also looked around in confusion. It took some time for Zelda to tell them both what had happened, and their faces were both ashen by the time she'd finished. It wasn't long before the rest of the Maidens had found their way back inside what was left of the sanctuary, Zelda then had to relate the story once more.

"So what do we do now?" the Purple Maiden asked, looking expectantly at the princess.

"We head back to Hyrule Castle." Zelda said decisively. The Red Maiden gasped in surprise at this.

"But, Your Majesty!" she protested. "Hyrule has fallen! There will be nothing left by now!"

"Well where else do you expect we go?" Zelda snapped, making the maidens recoil a little. "If the castle has fallen, I doubt anywhere will be safe! At least there we can hold out, make a stand. It's the best place we can get to as far as I'm concerned!"

The maidens looked crestfallen, but then the White Maiden spoke up. "You're right." She said. "The castle is the most well-defended place in Hyrule, and even as a ruin, it will offer enough protection."

"It's decided then!" The princess' voice was determined and fierce, in the same tone she used when it came to giving the Hylian Knights commands in times of battle. "We head back to the castle, and re-group there. Hopefully we won't be the only ones to have made their way back." Zelda didn't say it, but she secretly wondered how many had survived the attack, and dreaded the prospect of finding her entire kingdom razed to the ground. She looked south, in the vague direction of the castle, and started walking.

They journeyed for several days through the fields in the direction of the castle. Every night they stopped in the field, ate some of the fruits and anything else they foraged on the day's journey, and slept under the stars. Each morning they would finish the fruit from the day before as a breakfast before setting off again. It wasn't an easy journey. Several times the party of seven had to take cover as a swarm of Takkuri swooped overhead, cawing viciously. On the third day, they were ambushed by a pack of Keaton and only some quick thinking on the Yellow Maiden's behalf stopped her Purple-clad sister from being dragged away to the creatures' den. On the sixth day, they caught their first sight of the castle, or what was left of it.

It had been a hard day's journey. All seven of them were weary to the core, and the patrolling Takkuri that had swooped past for about the 26th time had drained them further. They had emerged from a forest onto the crest of a hill, which should've looked out over Castle town and the castle itself. However, when Princess Zelda saw the huge plume of smoke, the smashed and ruined walls, the ravaged land around them and the complete lack of the top half of the castle, all her tiredness drained away in a rush of dread. She subconsciously muttered a prayer to the gods, before running at full pelt down the side of the hill, slipping and sliding some of the way, her once fine clothes ragged and dirty. The other maidens followed as best they could, but they were still exhausted. By the time they had made their way to the bottom of the hill, Zelda was already striding towards the ruins of the castle, fear like no other clear as day on her face. She broke into a run, desperate to find someone in amongst the shattered masonry and burning timber. It wasn't hard to gain entry to the castle, since the walls were in ruins. Zelda soon found a large breach that opened near what had once been the marketplace, and climbed through it. She stared at what had once been her kingdom, the place she had been raised in and had ruled over, now reduced to rubble. The princess walked slowly through the ruined streets, a tear trickling down her face. She barely noticed when there came a shout from one of the gutted houses. Zelda's aqua-coloured eyes darted to the source, and she cried in joy as Vanesuela Kamara, fourth knight, jumped onto the smashed cobbles. The knight suddenly found herself in the princess' embrace, as she cried in joy onto his armour.

"It's alright, your highness," he patted the girl on the shoulder. "You're safe now."

* * *

><p>Blue was beginning to lose the last few glimmers of hope he possessed, and his mind was slipping back into the hopelessly depressed pit that he had only just managed to climb out last time. He could feel Green slipping away from him in his arms, and it frustrated Blue that there was nothing he could do to save his friend. The boy needed serious medical help, and Blue very much doubted that there would be a hospital nearby.<p>

Half an hour ago, the demons chasing him had caught up. Blue had dived behind a tree and pressed himself against the gnarled roots until the roars had died away. Even then, he had been extremely careful in case more of them were hanging around. Five minutes later, Blue had to do the same thing again, as the same demons swarmed past in the opposite direction. Blue smiled slightly. He realised that Vio must've sent them packing. He wondered if Red had seen the flare, and if he would be there also. Part of his mind started wandering towards the possibility that something had happened to him, but Blue pushed this out of his mind.

Blue stopped for a while to rest. He took Green's pulse for the umpteenth time. It was deteriorating rapidly, but Blue knew that the only thing he could do was to keep going. Completely shattered, the boy continued walking. Fortunately, he had reached the edge of the clearing in ten minutes. He gasped, as he saw the devastation. Two ogres lay dead, one with a crossbow bolt through the head and another with its throat ripped out. The Ground was slippery with black goo, and several patches of grass had been incinerated. But Vio was nowhere to be seen.

"No…" Blue murmured in horror. Near the base of the cliff, there was blood on the ground, black against the night. Blue laid Green down, and sank to his knees beside it. He picked up a bloody scrap of purple cloth, and stared at it. He felt numb inside, drained of everything except despair. One of his friends was dead, another was close to being dead, and the third was nowhere around. The possibility that something had happened to Red forced its way to the forefront of his mind, and Blue felt a tear trickle down his cheek. He couldn't stop it now; it came in a great rush of sorrow, and Blue fell to the ground, tears flowing freely from his eyes.

Blue's ears pricked**(1)** up, as he heard footsteps behind him. In a flash of steel, he unsheathed the combat knife and brought it round in an arc, spinning around to face his attacker. Oaksteel met Maplebronze as the knife smashed into a smaller dagger, and Blue stared into his own face. He staggered back in shock, tripped and fell backwards. the figure in front of him dropped the knife and tried to help him up, but Blue backed away even more

"Hey, man!" the figure said, dropping the dagger and holding his hands up. "Sorry for startling you but it's not like I've got leprosy or something!" **(2)**

"Wh-what the hell are you?" Blue stammered in shock.

"Takento Yellow is who the hell I am, and what the hell I am is certainly not a demon or other nasty thing disguised as one of your friends in an attempt to kill you, and though that may sound suspicious, if i were a demon I wouldn't dress myself in a colour that none of your friends actually wear."

Blue looked baffled at this. Yellow smiled at him politely, but his eyes flicked to Green lying near them. He swore, and knelt next to the boy.

"What happened to him?" he asked urgently, his voice possessing a similar tone as Vio's

"He...he got hit by a...sword" Blue stammered. Yellow's head whipped round in surprise.

"Did I just hear that right?" he asked, confused. Blue nodded. Yellow looked at him for a moment. "Let me guess. Hyrule, attack, four sword, explosion, shrapnel, forest, scattering and miniblins?" Blue looked stunned.

"How did you know?" He asked incredulously

"Your buddy explained it to me." Yellow looked down at Green. "We need to get Green up into the shelter, and then-"

"Hold on one second!" Blue shouted, everything becoming too much now. "whadda ya mean by shelter? How did you know Green's name? And who the hell have you been talking to?

"Most of the answers will involve me." There was a small thump, as something landed next to Yellow. Blue cried out in joy and relief, as Vio straightened up beside Yellow. "Nice to have you back Blue, although compared to the the others, you were a bit late."

"Red's here as well?" Blue's spirits lifted even higher.

"Yup. Vio smiled. "Now we need to get Green up into that tree over there where we've made some sort of camp," Vio pointed towards a tall silverpine on the edge of the clearing. "Natailie should be able to sort him out. By the way, she's a talking Vixen that Red found, who is in fact the daughter of Fayore. She'll probably be finished with Shadow by now."

"Shadow's here as well?" Blue laughed.

"Yep!" Yellow grinned. "the whole enchilada! **(3)**"

**(1) blue doesn't have super-control over his ears, but this just seemed like the right word to use.**

**(2) Leprosy is a serious, life threatening disease that should've been destroyed at the same time as smallpox. THIS IS NOT A JOKE THAT SOME CHARACTER MAKES.**

**(3) I am a britt, so i wouldn't know, but i think that this is something to do with a home run in baseball. However, Chicken Little is not a very good source of information...**


	10. The Net of Souls

**Tanthachon25: Extreeeeeeeme apologies for the hiatus people! I can't believe that this is chapter ten! I swear it was only a month or so when I published chapter 1!**

**Vio: It was three months actually**

**Tanthachon25: You know, I think you and me must be related, as we both have the capacity to be pedantic as hell!**

**Yellow: So what happens now? Do we reschedule the party that was started in Chapter 7?**

**Pinkie: OOH! Can I help? I could bake some cupcakes if you wanted?**

**Vio: Huh?**

**Yellow: Whoa!**

**Green: Umm…**

**Blue: WHAT THE FU-**

**Tanthachon25: Sorry! Pinkie, I'll have time for you later, but can you just go now? This isn't the time!**

It took about five minutes to get Green up into the tree on the edge of the clearing. Vio used Blue's combat knife to strip off a slab of bark from a waifpine on the edge of the clearing. Yellow produced a hookshot, surprising both Blue and Vio, and used it to fire a rope into the tree, where Red caught it and wrapped it around a branch to form a pulley system. Vio then carefully laid Green's body onto the slab of bark, used another length of rope courtesy of Yellow to rig up the slab to the dangling end of the rope. Red then pulled hard on his end of the rope, and the platform of bark rose slowly up into the tree. When it came down again, the three boys got on, and rose up to join them.

"I'M SOOO GLAD YOU'RE OKAY!"As the platform came level with the largest bough of the tree, the wind was knocked out of Blue as Red practically tackled him to the floor, narrowly missing the edge of the bough and laughing and crying at pretty much the same time. "I thought something had happened to you and that I'd never see you again! I kept thinking-" Red's blabbering was cut short by Blue's hand covering his mouth, but this didn't stop the now incoherent 'muuuph mumph muh muph!' that issue form his covered mouth. Blue looked deeply into Red's eyes.

"Red,"

"Mmmph?"

"Shut up."

Red sagged a little, and Blue removed his hand. There was a long pause.

"No, I'm kidding, go ahead." Blue grinned, and Red hugged him again.

"I'll never-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever-ever let you go again!" Red squeaked, burying his head in Blue's armpit, but then hurriedly withdrew it, grimacing when he caught the sour hint of BO coming from the abscess. "Eerm… when did you last wash?" he asked, sidling away from Blue slightly. At this, Yellow burst out laughing.

"Red, I don't think Blue had the time to have a shower before going into battle. If Hyrule had fallen while he was out on a date, then maybe he would've!" he snorted. Blue got up, and squared up to Yellow.

"You think you're _sooo_ funny, but next time you crack a joke like that it will be your last moment with your teeth." He growled menacingly. He walked away, but then turned round, anger in his face. "You don't know what I've had to go through just now. I've been carrying Green across most of this stupid forest, worried as hell about whether he's dead or not, and on top of that-" when Blue had said the word 'Green', Vio swore, and wheeled round, getting to his knees beside his wounded comrade and calling for Natailie, as Yellow sat down next to Vio. "NOW NO-ONE'S EVEN LISTENING TO ME!" Blue roared in frustration, before sinking to the ground and curling up in a depressed little ball. Red sat down next to him, but Blue shrugged off his arm when the boy tried to hug him.

"Please…"he murmured. "I need to be alone." At this, he got up, took a last look at Green, Vio and Yellow, and began climbing the rough bark of the tree, until he was about twenty strides above the others. Blue then clambered onto a large bough, and sat there, regaining his breath. He looked out over the forest canopy, and tried to clear his head, attempt to do some kind of meditation, calm himself down, but it didn't work. He felt a tear roll down his cheek. _What's wrong with me? _He thought, surprised at his emotions. _I'm turning into Red. Why am I so sad now? I thought I was the tough one, so why now have I become an emotionally unstable bastard?_

"You'd be surprised just how much a person can change over the course of two years." The voice sounded next to Blue, and he looked across to see an identical, black clad boy sitting next to him, staring out at the forest. Shadow sighed, and looked at Blue. "Yeah, you've changed over the years. You're not the arrogant loose cannon that I knew as my one-time enemy. Red's become so strong since then that it's ridiculous just thinking of his past self. Green…well…he's a lot quieter now."

Blue chuckled a little. He turned to Shadow. "Will Green be okay? He's really badly hurt." Shadow smiled, and put his arm round the boy.

"I think he'll be more than fine. Natailie's a great healer. She fixed me up in about two minutes, so I reckon that Green will be up and walking in about three, probably."

Blue looked quizzical. "What happened to you then?" There was no visible scar anywhere that he could see.

"Got throwing-knifed by that Yellow dude."

"So now we both have something against him." Blue growled. Shadow looked at him, almost sternly, and Blue shrunk a little.

"Don't blame him." Shadow sighed. "It was partly my fault for making a snide comment about thanking Ganondorf that made him think I was…" the boy trailed off a little. "Still evil."

There was silence between them for a while. Then Blue asked:"So how much has Vio changed, in your opinion?"

Shadow shook his head. "Beyond all recognition. I saw him in combat, and he's a frickin' samurai. I think his interest in books has slightly diminished, but he seems to have developed a love of building things."

Blue nodded. "You got that right. He built his crossbow completely from scratch."

The black link sighed. "However, I think that my absence has had a lasting effect on him." Blue nodded again at this, thinking how quiet the purple link had become. Once, he had woken up in the night and heard him crying quietly. Shadow continued. "To see someone's best friend die right in front of them must be absolutely devastating."

"By the way, I never had a chance to tell you," Blue looked at Shadow, a deep respect in his eyes. Shadow remembered the old Blue, and though how different this new Blue was in comparison. The boy was speaking again. "But what you did up in the Palace of Winds was completely selfless, insanely brave and truly beyond heroic, and-" Shadow cut him off.

"Please," He grinned. "You're embarrassing me."

"Sorry." Blue looked down. They sat in silence for a while. After about a minute Shadow sniffed, looking curious.

"You smell that?" he took a sideways glance at Blue. Blue sniffed as well, and caught the unmistakeable hint of frying.

"Yeah…" Blue muttered, taking another sniff. He could define various flavours now, spicy, savoury, all blending together into a concoction of smells that he knew only too well.

¿Que es?

Blue looked round, astonished. "Where did you learn Gerudo?" **(1)**

Shadow grinned. "Meh, I picked it up several years back. I guess it's never been at the front of my mind before now. But what is it you smell?"

Blue took another sniff. "Frying sentrobe meat, ground chamlock, limegrass and sweet khemeli powder. In other words, dinner."

Shadow grinned. "You never told me Red always had various ingredients to hand!"

Blue frowned. "I didn't know myself!"

Shadow stood up, groaning slightly because of his aching legs. "Aaah! Pins and needles! Let's go grab some dinner shall we?"

Blue nodded, and began to climb down the tree. Shadow didn't bother, and merely jumped off the bow, landing with a thump on the bough next to Yellow, scaring him half to death in the process. The boy toppled forwards and nearly fell in the fire with a yell of fright. Vio looked up, and Red burst out laughing. A few seconds later, Blue detached himself from the rough bark and slid the rest of the way, landing a few strides behind Shadow.

"Nice of you to drop in!" Vio smirked.

"Ahahahaha!" Yellow laughed sarcastically, standing up and batting out his flaming hat. "Ba-doom-boom SLAP."

"You're just in time for tea!" Red squeaked, pouring spoonfuls of some kind of stew into six wooden bowls, and magically producing six wooden spoons, setting the bowls and spoons down around the fire.

"Where's Natailie?" Blue asked. Yellow pointed downwards.

"On the ground." He said, casually. "Hunting"

"You know Red," Shadow remarked, as they all sat down in a semicircle around the dying fire. "If I received a plate of your food anonymously, I'd swear some master chef wanted to make friends with me."

"That's Red for you!" Green laughed. Blue noticed he was still a bit pale, and there was a bandage across his chest, barely visible beneath the white undershirt. But the boy's spirits had clearly recovered the most, and he seemed to be the same Green that Blue had spent a year with at secondary school. As his laughter died down, he turned to Vio. "Seeing as you and Blue have apparently taken command in my absence, do you reckon you could fill me in on what's been happening since the…incident with the Four Sword."

"Certainly." Vio began. "You all know that Ganondorf has broken free, and most likely most of the daemons sealed with him. If we consider the fact that those attacking Hyrule castle were the ones that slipped through the seal, there must be a gigantic number released with him. Things do not look good. On top of that, Ganondorf possesses an artefact so ancient it stretches beyond the first forming of the world. It is the key to immortality, and potentially to becoming a God."

At this, there were five intakes of breath. Shadow looked grim. Blue looked startled. Green looked worried, Yellow looked intrigued, and Red looked downright terrified.

"¿Que es?" **(2)** Blue asked, once more switching to Gerudo. "And how are we supposed to fight Ganondorf if he is not much short of a God?"

"A plan of action is not something I have figured out yet, but the most likely thing is to fight him on his own turf, and if possible, seal him in the deepest recesses of the dark world. As to what this artefact is, Shadow can tell you best." He nodded at the black link, who stood up.

"The artefact is called the net of souls, and it has the power to ensnare the spirits of the dead and return them to anywhere in the world, physical or dark. It is how I am standing here. I got caught in the net. Ganondorf drew me into the Dark world."

"But Ganondorf was sealed!" Green objected. "How could he have got the net, let alone draw you back into existence?"

"Place a man under house arrest and he can still run a criminal empire." Shadow countered. "Ganondorf was running the whole show from inside the seal, and he already had the net before he brought me into the world. It was a back-up plan. If you hadn't sealed him away as soon as you did, Vaati and all the other nasties would've been plopped back into existence, ready to terrorise Hyrule anew."

"But something went wrong in his master plan. The explosion of energy that shot through Hyrule when Ganondorf was sealed decimated pretty much his entire army, and the remaining daemons were too few in number to make a counter attack. He began to breed more daemons in the dark world. Bigger, nastier, cleverer and far better armed than before, while the ones who survived multiplied in the deep and dark places of the world. There were enough to annoy Hyrule and keep it occupied, and as the seal weakened, a small proportion of Ganondorf's new army assaulted Hyrule Castle."

"That was a _small_ proportion?" Blue gasped, open-mouthed in shock. Shadow nodded. "Shit." He swore. "We're in trouble."

"How do you know all this?" Yellow asked. "I'm assuming you were in on the enemy's plans."

Shadow swallowed, and nodded. "When I was drawn out of the net, my soul was imprisoned in the Dark world. I spent two years languishing in the dungeons that had been constructed. Ganondorf would often project himself there to discuss plans with the greater daemons that acted as a deputy ruler of the dark world, and to…torment those who were my fellow prisoners. Most of them were the greater daemons that had been involved with his first attempt, and he blamed them for his defeat, because of them not killing you. He personally obliterated Vaati right in front of me. Punched a hole right through him. Those he didn't kill, he…tormented."

Shadow closed his eyes. But the images almost branded into the darkness were so horrific that he opened them again, shuddering slightly. There was silence, as everyone took in what he had said.

"So what do we do now then?" Yellow asked.

Green stood up, his face set, but smiling slightly. "We do what we always do. We adventure. We rescue. We fight, we liberate, we kick ass, and we show Ganondorf that all he's returned for is six swords stabbing him through his evil pug-ugly face!"

And there came an answering cheer.

"Yeah!"

* * *

><p><strong>(1) as in Mlp (Episode 5, the cutie pox), french is referred to as 'fancy'. same deal here with Spanish, except it's Gerudo.<strong>

**(2) You'd be surprised at how much Blue remembers.**

**Do you think I am slightly overdoing these pre-chapter speaking bits?**

**As I said before, extreme apologies for the Hiatus. I just seem to have been doing other stuff. See ya round!**


	11. Inscriptions of warriors

**Vio: Okay, Bypassing the issue of ponies randomly materialising under my sofa, I'd like to know why you turned down Pinkie's offer of making cupcakes.**

**Tanthachon25: Becuase recieving Pinkie's cupcakes is like tap-dancing on a minefield, they could be normal, or they could contain pony organs.  
><strong>

**Yellow:...I did just hear that right, didn't I?  
><strong>

**Big Mac: Eeyup!  
><strong>

**Vio: See? _THAT_ is exactly what I'm talking about!  
><strong>

**Tanthachon25: Don't blame me, Cupcakes is a common theme in the MLP community here.  
><strong>

**Shadow: Que esta?  
><strong>

**'Tanthachon25 displays 'Cupcakes' on one wall'  
><strong>

The usual smells that would usually permeate the forest's upper canopy in the mornings didn't usually consist of sizzling pine oil and frying takkuri eggs, so Natailie's acute fox nose, so accustomed to natural smells, was confused. She got up, and trotted along the branch, following her nose, untill the trail ended. Confused, the vixen looked around, and then saw the thin plume of smoke rising just beside her. She looked over one side of the branch, and saw three figures sitting around a small fire, one in green, one in ruby, the other in ochre. Red was casually stirring something in a pan, and Green and Yellow were engaged in conversation. Natailie flattened herself against the bark, and crept along the branch to a cluster of orchidvines anchored by their thick roots to the branch, and slowly climbed down them, listening to what Green and Yellow were saying.

"But seriously, you guys really need to broaden your expertise with weapons." Yellow was saying. "I knew this guy who could shoot down a peahat mid-air and nab the bombs in under two seconds."

"How did he do that?" Green asked, incredulously.

"A combination of bow, boomerang and pegasus boots." Yellow said contemptuously.

"Que es?" Red asked, looking up from the pan.

"Hylian, dude please" Green sighed.

"The pegasus boots are a set of boots that allow the wearer to either fly or run at incredible speeds." Yellow explained. "each has a pair of magically crafted wings attatched to each side."

"What happens when they run into something?" Green asked.

"They don't." Yellow replied bluntly.

Natailie was about halfway down the vine, and looked at the three of them, almost on the same level as them. Red saw her, and very subtely winked. Green and Yellow couldn't see her, as their backs were turned, but Red could, and he gave a knowing little smile.

"What do you mean?" Green persisted.

"Crashing while wearing pegasus boots is like bungee jumping with scissors." Yellow explained. "A one-way ticket to A&E"

"Maple syrup, berries, whipped cream or some combination of the three?" Red asked. Yellow and Green looked bemused for a second, unsure of the meaning of his words, before it sank in.

"oh, erm, cream and syrup." Green mumbled.

"Ditto." Yellow added casually.

"And you?" Red asked, causing Green and Yellow to look at eachother, bemused.

"BERRIES!" Natailie shouted, jumping onto Green's shoulder, causing the latter to flinch and Yellow to yell in surprise and drop his hat in the fire.

"Aagh! DIN! NO!" Yellow screamed, trying to bat out the flames in his hat. Red reached over and extinguished the flames by pouring a small amount of maple syrup onto the garment. A few seconds later, the flames reared up again, bright green this time, as Yellow yelled in frustration, trying to extinguish the flames by flapping it in the air. Green and Natailie were cracking up by the time the flames went out, and Yellow was looking forlornly at the slightly charred cloth.

"I'm gonna need a new one of these." he murmered, before slumping to the ground, staring off into space. Red put a small cloth parcel next to him, and Yellow opened it absent-mindedly.

"Breakfast!" Red piped, stabbing a fork into the stack of steaming pancakes dolloped with whipped cream and drizzled with maple syrup.

"Oh, thanks." Yellow cheered up and began to eat. Natailie had already flipped up the pancakes into the air and gobbled the lot, and was now tucking into the berries rolling around on the little piece of cloth. Green was ploughing through his stack, and Red was carefully rolling up his with dollops of cream and a handful of berries down one end, eating them like a wrap. There was silece for a while as they gulped down breakfast, and then Natailie spoke up.

"May I ask where Vio and Shadow are?" she asked Red. The boy pointed downwards, and Natailie peeped over the edge of the branch, and spoted two figures sparring on the forest floor.

* * *

><p>Shadow brought the bamboo cane round hard, and Vio ducked , jabbing his own staff at Shadow's ankle, who dodged, and stepped back, circling his opponent. Vio charged, and Shadow made to turn his attack aside, but the purple link slid under his counter-strike and flipped the cane out of Shadow's hand, into the air, and Vio put his weapon to Shadow's throat. "You're... a bit out of practice..." Vio panted. Shadow caught him a glancing blow to the head with one hand, and grabbed his weapon as it dropped out of the air. Vio, caught off guard, was only just able to deflect the flurry of attacks that came from all directions. Shadow feinted to the left and Vio made to block, but his opponent's lunge became a slash which Vio caught clumsily on his cane, stumbling backwards as the vibrations shot through the wood. Shadow's back-stroke slipped clean through his defences and scored a direct hit on Vio's side.<p>

"What were you saying again?" Shadow asked innocently.

* * *

><p>It was decided. Vio had said that they needed to get back to Hyrule. Blue had protested, Green had been doubtful and Red had been worried. Not a great reaction. Then the Drakkon came. Blue was the first to spot the wall of flame that preceded its attack, and they only just managed to get out of its warpath. the beast still came on, flattening the forest under its claws. the links ran for their lives, Natailie scouting ahead and to the sides, warning them of any obstacles in their path. But even with help, it is hard to navigate in a forest, especially with a drakkon on your tail. Just as the links started to pull ahead, the ground dropped from under their feet, and they were sent hurtling down into subterranean blackness<p>

* * *

><p>Blue groaned, and pushed himself up from the floor. It had been a hard landing, and as he felt around him in the pitch blackness for his combat knife, his fingers touched the cold stone of the floor. groping around blindly, he finally found the smooth, comforting touch of oaksteel on his fingers. Blue quickly found the hilt and unsteadily got to his feet.<p>

"Alright, who's alive?" came Yellow's voice in the darkness.

"Me." Green's voice sounded

"I'm still alive." Vio called **(1)**

"I'm good," Red spoke, his voice coming from close by. "Luckily I landed on something soft."

"That's me you doorpost!" Shadow cried, followed by a scuffle and a slight giggle.

"Never heard that one before." Natailie remarked.

"Can we get some light people?" Green asked

"Hang on..." suddenly there was a bright flash, as the tip of Red's fire rod flared into life. Blue looked for the others, and saw a disgruntled Shadow climbing to his feet. Vio had drawn his bow and was looking warily into the darkness beyond their circle of light, while Yellow had unsheathed his dagger. "I don't dare try to light up anything more, for risk of incinerating us." Red said, staring intently at the flaming ball at the end of the rod.

"Let's find a wall somewhere, then we can probably find a way out." Green called to his friends. The five links and the vixen circled round Red, and they slowly walked forwards, Shadow making sure that they didn't walk into anything.

"I've got something!" Shadow cried after about twenty paces. "Red can you come over here please?" Red jogged over to where Shadow was, holding the fire rod aloft like an Olympic torch. The others followed. Red held the rod higher, and its light shone upon a huge stone carving, stretching upwards into the darkness. The lines were embossed with gold,which shone deep red in the firelight. Figures were embossed into the stone: six in a circle, two back to back surrounded by monsters, one walking alone, four at the controls of some ship. and there were other things. A craft trailing flames shooting towards a spire of darkness that spiralled down from a black rip in the sky, twelve huge machines spitting lightning from their arms.

"What is this?" Shadow gasped in awe.

"There's writing here!" Vio exclaimed. the others came over to where he was standing, staring at a section of the huge mural. "It's in Arbiteri Runic, but I think I can decipher it." He fumbled on his belt, bringing out his copy of 'World Legends and Realities, flicked to the translator pages, and began to read aloud.

_A thousand years away but two days ago_

_A cataclysm to save or shatter all worlds_

_A paradox- darkness reforged, stronger than ever_

_An enemy to imprison the world forever._

_Echoes back to the dawn of time  
><em>

_Bring together links for the final battle  
><em>

_Light shall shatter darkness twice over  
><em>

_Time bought by blood to delay The Nova  
><em>

_Six heroes emerge from the ancient world  
><em>

_And blessed with the power of those to come  
><em>

_Each a cloud__ in a storm of rain  
><em>

_Each a link in an iron chain  
><em>

_The holder of air, the princeps alpha  
><em>

_The hammer and healer, the holder of water  
><em>

_The fire-born martyr, twice shall he stand  
><em>

_The hero wrought from the villains hand  
><em>

_The artificer-warrior, the strength in the fight  
><em>

_The chosen wielder of plasma and light  
><em>

_Seperate they are formidable foes  
><em>

_A chain-link can be wrought into war  
><em>

_Together they end the evil's reign,  
><em>

_The heroes of time, the iron chain.  
><em>

__And with a blood-curdling scream, the first great skulltulla dropped into their midst and sank its fangs into Yellow's shoulder.


	12. Forging the Iron Chain

**Tanthachon25: Well, now things are gonna get interesting.**

**Blue: If your idea of interesting is trying to kill us, then I'm seriously worried.**

**Tanthachon25: I said in chapter 8 I'd be buying this round of attempted death, and I've bribed the barman.**

**Yellow: What the hell does that mean? And why exactly do we keep making alcohol related puns?**

**Tanthachon25: That's just another mystery to add to the list. Right next to 'how can you guys take loads of damage in the game but you have practically no armour' and just above 'how do ponies with guns pull the trigger'.**

With a scream, the skulltulla dragged Yellow into the darkness beyond the Fire rod's circle of light. The links barely had time to turn and face their enemy when another huge arachnid threw itself at them, scattering the group and knocking Red to the floor, his fire rod slipping out of his hands and clattering to the floor. The light from the weapon flickered for a second, and then went out. Blackness enveloped them like a dark tide. Red tried to scrabble out from under the creature that was pinning him down, but as he did, one of its flailing legs caught him a glancing blow and sent him crashing to the ground. Vio was backed up against a wall, listening intently to the hissing coming from in front of him. Against the blackness, he saw an even blacker shape lunge forward, and Vio raised his crossbow and fired.

By sheer luck, it was an explosive arrow, and the blast carried the Skulltulla away, obliterating two others that had been converging on Vio, and lighting up the place for a split-second. It was all Blue needed to see the incoming enemy. The blue link drew his combat knife and threw it at the advancing Skulltulla, burying the weapon up to the hilt in the creature's belly. There was no time to retrieve it, as a hissing from his left told him there was another creature about to spring. Blue dived to the floor as it passed above, its hairy legs grazing his back and making him shiver in disgust. He scrambled to his feet, as the creature came on through the blackness, its mandibles opening and shutting with a horrible clacking that set his teeth on edge. Weaponless, Blue scrambled backwards das the Skulltulla advanced towards him, and the boy's back came into contact with something long and cold. He turned round, and his hand brushed what felt like some kind of gilded pole. The pursuing arachnid leapt towards its prey, and Blue picked up the pole and swung it at his attacker. It was much heavier than he had expected, and he could see a nimbus of electricity building around the outline of what looked like the head of a hammer. The weapon met the skulltulla's abdomen head-on, and as it struck, a colossal wave of sound emanated from the hammer's head like a sonic boom, and the nimbus around it exploded outwards, coursing into its target. The skulltulla was pulverised in an instant, and sent flying away from Blue, its broken form rippling with electricity. As it did so, a ball of blue energy rose from the hammer's head, and slowly floated to the roof of the chamber. Suddenly, the ball flared, and the whole chamber was thrown into light.

The place was vast. The mural they had found earlier was at the centre of an even larger one, depicting battles and great events and mysterious figures. There were six low plinths in front of the mural, each with a different symbol on it, and in front of each, was a frame, and in each, was a weapon. They were nothing like the weapons in the Castle armoury, and the two swords there outshined even the four sword. One rack however was empty, and this was the one just behind Blue where he had taken the hammer from. In the centre of the room, there was a carving of some kind of aircraft, but the abstractness of the carving made it hard to tell. Seven Skulltullas had been caught in the act, and were now screeching in pain as the light burned through them. In no more than a few seconds, they were little more than scatterings of black dust.

"Everyone alright?" Blue called to the others, who were picking themselves up.

"Yeah, I think so." Green said, pulling Shadow to his feet. Natailie took her paw off Yellow's now healed shoulder, and trotted over to the others. "Weren't expecting that."

"Unless we had night vision, it would've been impossible to do so." Vio remarked, reloading his crossbow and walking over to where Blue was."Natailie, those things weren't poisonous, were they?" He asked.

"Apparently not." Yellow grinned, standing up and joining the others. "That hammer is completely bad-ass though." He said to Blue, who was now staring in wonder at the new weapon. "I'm surprised that you're currently lifting it, given the size and the material which it looks like it's made of."

Blue looked down at the hammer in wonder. The shaft was wrapped in indigo leather, with a silver tassel attached to the top. The head itself was a gilded brick of steel, embossed with a curious symbol of two blue orbs, one smaller and set on to the bottom of the larger one. One end of the head carried the same symbol, which was glowing with a nimbus of energy, while the other was a chiselled square of marble. "It's a lot lighter than you think." He said, gesturing for Yellow to come over. Yellow did so, and took it from him, weighing it in his hands, a puzzled expression on his face.

"How does something whose damage potential is all to do with momentum and weight get so light?" Yellow mused. Almost as soon as he had said this, there was a bright flash, and a small ball of green light suddenly appeared in front of the mural, causing the six links to gasp. The ball of light floated gently downwards like a luminous feather, and slowly, a pair of gossamer thin, insect-like wings folded out from the ball of light, and Red cried out in surprise.

"You're a fairy!" he cried in amazement.

"You don't say!" Shadow muttered sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"_**Welcome heroes…" **_ the fairy said, its voice low and soft. "_**…To the Temple of Past."**_

"The temple of past?" Blue repeated.

"_**Yes." **_The fairy said. _**"I am Kailu, spirit of past. I was betasked with guarding the temple and its sacred contents."**_

"I would've thought that a temple with such an impressive name would be a bit more obvious," Vio said, looking around. "Not underground in the middle of a vast forest. It would be impossible to find.

"_**This temple was never meant to be found by anyone, other than yourselves, Vionotar." **_Kailu said, and her words made Vio reel back in shock.

"What's wrong?" Shadow asked in alarm, running to his friend's side.

"N-no…" Vio gasped, his face white as chalk. "no-one's called me that in a long time…"

"So what are the sacred contents of this temple?" Yellow asked.

_**"Inside these walls, six relics were placed by one of the first heroes. Relics from a time to come." **_Kailu said, floating down towards the six racks which held the swords.

"Huh?" Red shook his head in confusion. "So if these relics were put here a long time ago, how are they from a time to come?"

**_"That is for you to find out. But it will be under more dire circumstances."_ **The fairy's voice was becoming slightly strained from retining impatience

"Somehow I find that rather hard to believe." Blue muttered.

"Speaking of which," Green began. "How is there going to be a time to find out? Ganondorf's rampaging through Hyrule and we're hundreds of miles away!"

Kailu almost seemed to smile. _**"These relics were only meant to be used in Hyrule's darkest hour. I believe that time is nigh."**_

"So...will you let us have them?" Yellow asked cautiously. This time, Kailu did laugh, a tinkling sound eminating from the fairy, accompanied by a small shower of glimmering lights.

_**"I will break the seal, allowing you to bring wrath upon the darkness, but hurry. Ganondorf is mounting another attack on the castle, and I fear that the defenders will not survive for long. Princess Zelda has already taken to the fray herself.**_

Green gasped, looking horrorstruck. Vio grunted in amusement. "I wondered how long she would sit on her throne during a battle."

**_"Step onto the seals, and I will begin the_ process."** Kailu said, hovering round the six plinths in front of the swords. The links looked at eachother, slighly unsure. then, casting caution to the wind, Blue stepped up onto one of the plinths, a blue one in the shape of the same symbol on the hammer, which he replaced. Red followed, stepping onto the one next to him, which was a deep crimson and had a symbol of flame on it. Shadow and Vio looked at each other, before stepping onto their pedastels simultaneously. Vio's was purple, and on top was a symbol of three tear-drops in a line, forming an open flower. Shadow's was black, and had an inverted triangle with three glimmering spheres on it's top. Yellow looked at Green, who was holding back.

"Don't want to get left behind do ya?" he asked, smirking, before stepping onto his pedastel, a pale yellow one with three inward pointing triangles, and also with three glistening orbs positioned at equal intervals around the centre. Green sighed, and stepped up onto the last pedastel. This was green, with a spiral shape on an upward facing crescent. At once, all six pedastels flared into light. Kailu floated up into the air, so that she was in front of all six pedastels.

_**"Let us begin."**_

Instantly, the light went to blinding, before subsiding just as quickly. Orbs of light flew out of each pedastel and began encircling the link standing on it. Quickly, the orbs lost speed, coming to a halt around the links. Then, they began changing, and moving onto the links' bodies. it was only when half a dozen orbs had done this on each link that it became clear what the orbs were becoming and forming. It was _armour. _Huge plates of ceramic and metal were encasing the Links. and other changes were happening. Red's fire rod was dissassembled in an instant, and the wood was reduced to vapour. The red orb on the end warped and elongated into a rod. Three orbs became metal and slammed onto the rod, shifting into place to form a blade. Two orbs flew to Vio's crossbow, coating parts in metal and pushing others out from the furnture of the weapon. One orb elongated vastly into a long cable, while another formed a grappling hook and the other formed a small winch. these three items fitted together and attatched itself to Yellow's armoured wrist, where it was covered in a sleek casing. On his left, half a dozen orbs swarmed round Blue's right forearm, fusing together into a huge gauntlet, rippling with energy, while above each link, twelve orbs spread out into large, ornately decorated shields, which strapped themselves onto the backpacks the Links now carried. Six pistols forged themselves in midair and clamped themselves onto the Links' greaves. The two gauntlets on one of the weapon racks flew to Shadow's wrists, enveloping them as four long spikes materialised and slid into each gauntlet, while on his back, the top of the backpack was stripped away to reveal a glowing device, which was concealed as a large bracing unit slammed onto the top of the pack, and soon a pair of small jet engines had been attatched to the sides of it, which came online brefly in a whirl of turbines and roar of hot exhaust. One orb hovererd above the links, which split into six. Each became golden, and wrought themselves inot a triple triangle symbol, which slammed onto the chestplates of the Links, quickly followed by a pair of wings. The light from the pedastels faded. Green opened his eyes.

"In Din's name..." Vio murmured, staring at his armour in wonder, which was a deep purple. His hat had gone, and clamped next to his pistol was a large, ancient-looking hlmet, similar to those worn by the gerudo elite. **(1) **The T-shaped gap in the burnished metal was filled with an amber-looking glass, and when Vio detatched it and put the helmet on, his eyes met a full tactical display projected onto the helmet's inner, which displayed a view far clearer and broader than Vio had expected. He looked around at the others, and icons and readouts flashed around them, highlighting parts of their armour. Captions sprang up, titled with things like: 'Mk IV assault pattern Maximus Pauldrons' 'Fury pattern repeating bolt pistol' and 'Icarus pattern Extended lift pack.' Vio took off his helmet and stared at it. "It's beyond anything i could've dreamed of. This is seriously advanced."

_**"The power of the future-born is great indeed"**_Kailu said, circling Vio's head.

"I'm impressed!" Shadow exclaimed, as with a flourish, flickering blades slid out of the oversized gauntlets encasing his arms, and with a click, they swivelled and merged into single blades, which slid back over the backs of the gauntlets.

"Where did my fire rod go?" Red asked, looking around and checking the clamps on his greaves. Kailu zoomed over to him, and hovered around the halberd in Red's hands.

_**"The fire rod has been re-forged and implemented into the Spear of Vulcan. This halberd will extend your striking range while providing fire to the cutting edge. It will help you in the fight."**_

"Yes..." Yellow began, looking quizzical. "But if we're supposed to save Hyrule, how are we going to get there? I've no idea where we are and I'm pretty sure no-one else does either."

Kailu floated over to the carving in the centre of the chamber, and as if it was a frozen joint of meat, it began to 'defrost'. The stone shimmered and evapourated, slowly revealing a magnificent aircraft. The shining hull was a bright gold, the wing panels were inset with what looked like Lapis Lasuli and the dorsal-mounted rocket pods were full and smoking gently. The Links gasped in unison.

_**"This,"**_Kailu siad, her voice laced with pride, _**"is the ****Stormeagle. It will get you to Hyrule with speed. May it rain death upon your foes."**_

"I-I don't know what to say..." Green stammered in awe.

"I do!" Said Blue, grinning. "This is frickin' badass! Thanks!"

"Thanks, and Goodbye!" Shadow called, as the Links made their way towards the craft."

Red turned and was just about to follow when he felt a paw on his ankle. He turned, and kneeled down in front of Natailie.

"I have to leave you now." she said. Red looked crestfallen, but Natailie smiled. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." Red looked round at the Stormeagle as with a clang, Blue got the front hatch down.

"Will I see you at all again?" Red asked, his eyes growing slightly moist.

"You never know..." Natailie winked, before turning and trotting away.

"Goodbye..." Red called, but the vixen didn't turn. Inside the Stormeagle, Green had slipped himself into the pilot seat and started the two huge turbofan engines.

"You sure you know how to fly this?" Vio asked, standing just behind him.

"I've got a feeling I can."** (2) **Green smirked, resting both hands on the control column as Red entered the cavernous rear transport hold, and the huge rear ramp shut with a clang. He looked up through the cockpit's canopy as a grinding sound echoed through the chamber. A shaft of light shot down into the Temple as the roof began to slide backwards into the surrounding rock, and blue sky came into view. Green flicked three levers in consecutive order, and the great behemoth rose a little, tilting its nose upward towards the sky.

And then suddenly, with a horrific lurch and a roar of engines, the Stormeagle shot vertically out of the temple and into the sky, trailing smoke and the sound of screams of abject terror, before the craft reached mach 7 and blasted into the stratosphere.** (3)**

**Right, this is gonna be on hiatus for a bit as i have other writing projects to do. however, i just want to make a few shout-outs now.  
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**Watermelon Juice-for being a dedicated fan and regularly reviewing.  
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**Stuart Williamson-for coming up with the Storm Eagle gunship.  
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**Akira Himekawa-for writing the manga.  
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**Basalisk120-for being a fellow warbrony.  
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**Nao1789-The Deviantartist who first came up with the character of Yellow  
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**Fanfiction itself!  
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**Also, I recently found out that you can see how many people are reading and following AIC, and i was surprised just to see how many of you have read and liked this and given me the impression that there were only four people actually caring about this. So yes. **Efi Fefi, Pantherstar101, Everlastingdaydreamer, Saipandevo, Saphirewhitewolf, Shadowmwape and SilverMinuet,** please leave reviews. I don't want to feel unnoticed and insignificant.  
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**However, hats off to Alnrath, Daisypi and Roseanna62, who have done what others have not.  
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**Adios personas!  
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**(1) Picture a spartan helmet. If this is a little vague, see Ivanus Enkomi's helmet, which you can see on Forge World.**

**(2) Green is supposed to be affiniated with the wind element, so it'd be likely that he is a good pilot.  
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**(3) Speak of the devil.  
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	13. Stormeagle

**Tanthachon25: Hey look, we have a cover now!**

**Yellow: And we're bad-ass now!**

**Shadow: And Green fails at controlling aircraft!**

**Green: Come on, how was I supposed to know what to do?**

**Vio: You looked like you did.**

**Green: I was just flipping switches at random in the hope that it did something.**

**Red: Can someone get this terrible pilot out of my ear?**

**All (discounting Red and Green): EPIC RUNNING GAG TIME!**

**Tanthachon25: That's the third time we've made that joke.**

**Zelda: It's not like it's ever going to get old at all, is it?**

**Tanthachon25: No. Anyway, onto the story!**

"They're coming."

Artura snapped the telescope shut and stowed it away in his tunic. The huge army of daemons mustered in the ravaged fields surrounding the ruined castle could be easily seen, but considering how many there were, when they began to march forward, it was not immediately noticeable. Artura turned to the Guard Captain, who stared resolutely ahead.

"Storm's brewing." He grunted. Ever since his sons, (He still thought of them as his sons, despite them not actually being related) had disappeared and the four sword broken, he had become quiet and brooding. His anger at Ganondorf's minions though had increased dramatically, and he had discarded his normally careful precision tactics in favour of charging headfirst into battle. He was hardly ever seen and spoke rarely. Artura looked at him for a moment.

"Shouldn't we get to the Princess? Tell the guards to prepare to defend?" Artura asked, feeling that the Captain's reply was in no way sufficient. The captain grunted in what was probably agreement, and turned, striding away from the battlements, Artura hot on his heels. As they walked through the wrecked town, they passed Knights preparing for the attack, setting up barricades and repairing the huge trebuchets on the castle walls. Buildings were being stabilized and armoured firing points were being built every ten metres, allowing regular fallback points for when the enemy pushed into the town. As they came to what had once been the gates of the inner castle, they turned, picking a path round the walls and entering via a small side door.

Since the throne room of the castle was so unstable, what with having a big hole punched through it, Princess Zelda's seat of authority now sat in her official quarters. The hexagonal room sat near the top of the northwest tower, and had remained largely unscathed by the attack. The windows had been blown in, and a layer of frosted glass was spread across the carpet, and crunched like razor-sharp snow as the knights strode into the room.

Princess Zelda looked up from the letter she was reading and gave the knights a weary smile. She had since given up the traditional finery, which had been torn to pieces anyway, in return for a simple pair of white trousers and shirt. Her hair was wild and unkempt, and her tiredness showed in her face.

"The army has started to move, your highness." Artura stated, with the matter-of-fact precision of a high ranking officer. Zelda sighed, a look of resignation on her face. She shut her eyes for a moment, and in the pause, Artura rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "So…what do you plan to do?" He asked, breaking the silence. Zelda's eyes snapped open, and she stood up, causing the knights to step back in surprise. Her face switched from serenity to determination in a heartbeat.

"We need to go down to the armoury." She commanded, setting the letter down on her desk. "We will talk on the way." She strode out of the room, closely followed by the guards. They turned, and began to walk down a long flight of stairs, Zelda taking two at a time. They reached a stone corridor, and Zelda began outlining the plan.

"I want the best crossbowmen and archers assembled, have them placed on the first line. If we have any heavy siege equipment or anything along those lines, put them at the front as well. Get the catapults manned immediately, I want their ranks thinned as much as possible as soon as possible. Use the fire points as much as possible, and when the first line breaks, and it will, I want our swordsmen to act as a buffer. Plug the gaps in the line, and fall back in those which are too large- fall back and surround before they can do any damage. Do NOT let us be outflanked." Zelda pushed open the doors of the armoury. "And find me some armour. I'm going in myself."

"But, Your Highness!" Artura protested. "Your life is far too valuable for you to-" Zelda whirled, cold fury boiling in her eyes.

"My family has too long sat by while our people have died. If this is Hyrule's last hour, I will fight, and if need be die alongside my people!" She stormed, all the while glaring deep into Artura's eyes. "I will not sit on some silly chair while my kingdom falls."

The Guard Captain laid his hand on Artura's shoulder. "Let her do this. She has a right to make her own choices about her future…and what she wants to fight for." He looked at Zelda, and the look in his eyes surprised Zelda greatly. It was that of fatherly compassion and concern, which Zelda had only seen when he was with the Links. Zelda realised, in that one glance, what the Guard Captain was fighting for. He was fighting for his sons. So that if they returned, they would not return to a ruined world. And if they never returned, he was avenging their deaths.

The sleeping Latiku woke with a start. It rolled around inside the cloud, trying to get comfortable again. It noticed a roaring coming from below him, but it ignored the sound. It was used to storms. The roaring sound grew louder, and its ears pricked up, as they picked out a chorus of very faint screaming. The Latiku curled over and went back to sleep. The roaring continued to grow. And suddenly, with a screech of air being reduced to subatomic particles, a burst of superheated gas punched into the cloud, turning it and its hapless occupant into a mere scattering of neutrons.

Green wrestled with the bucking control column, flicking every switch and pressing every button in his field of vision in an attempt to stop the Stormeagle's wild ascent. In the transport bay behind him, the others were desperately trying to hold on to anything to stop them being hurled out of the gaping rear hatch. Vio had managed to partly harness himself in, hanging onto the straps and scrabbling for a foothold on the slippery metal. Shadow, jump jets flaring wildly had cracked open a weapons cabinet and was desperately hanging onto a huge energy rifle. Unfortunately, these would only stay in place for about thirty seconds, and he had to lunge for another as the weapon's clamps disengaged and it flew out of the hangar bay into open air. Red had wrapped his arms around a handrail, and Blue was clutching his legs like a lifeline, screaming his head off.

"Fly straight, dammit!" Green yelled in frustration, pushing his feet against the pedals in an attempt to rectify the craft's upside-downness. The Stormeagle seemed to skid, the nose swinging round and wings slewing through the air. The craft was now flying sideways, at an almost 90 degree angle. On top of this, the centripetal force caused the last energy rifle to de-clamp, hurtling towards the gaping bay door and taking Shadow with it, who unsheathed his claws and embedded them in the bay's entrance ramp, shuddering to a halt. Blue's grip on Red's leg slackened, and with a scream of pure terror, he was sucked out of the vehicle and into open space. Shadow, looking back over his shoulder, saw Blue spiralling away from the ship, and sheathing his talons he shot out of the back of the Stormeagle, in pursuit of his comrade.

"You're a terrible pilot!" Yellow screamed, battling his way through the haywire g-forces towards the cockpit. Green slammed the throttle forward, trying to even their flight out, but this served only to send his ochre counterpart flying forward into the canopy as the craft stalled in mid-air. For a tantalising few seconds, the craft hung in the sky, before it plummeted earthwards. Blue, previously verging on being 1000 feet below the Stormeagle, now found it suddenly falling alongside him, spinning wildly. Then Shadow, Jump pack going ballistic in an attempt to catch up with his falling friend, rugby-tackled Blue and kicked the jets back, bringing them into a hovering position. They could only watch as the Stormeagle hurtled downwards.

Green panicked, flipping every switch within reach and wildly wrenching the control column in the hope that it would actually do something. By some feat of incredible luck, one of the switches extended the Stormeagle's airbrakes, once again sending Yellow flying forwards as the craft decelerated around him. Yellow drew his sword from the sheath on his belt, and as he flew forwards in the cockpit, he whacked Green in the head with the weapon's pommel. Although Green's helmet stopped most of the blow's force, it was still enough to stun Green and knock him out of the pilot's seat. Yellow slipped into the empty seat, as Green flew backwards into the transport bay and caught by Vio to stop him falling out of the craft.

Yellow took hold of the control column and flicked two switches. The huge bay door shut, and the craft's landing gear, still extended from Green's rather sudden take-off, folded back into the fuselage. With a smile, Yellow's hands danced about the controls, and 100 metres from the ground, Yellow slammed the throttle back, brought the craft's VTOL jets online and brought the craft' nose up. The Stormeagle swooped gracefully upwards, and to a stop, 500 metres up in the air. Everyone on board sighed with relief.

Shadow , still carrying Blue, swooped down on his jump jets and hovered next to one of the craft's side doors. Yellow pushed a button on the Stormeagle's control console and the door lowered smoothly, allowing Shadow to cut the power to his jump pack and land with a clang on the lowered door. Once Inside, Blue slumped on one of the seats next to Red who had now strapped himself in. Green, having removed his helmet, was still looking slightly groggy and Vio was examining the ship, running his hands over its hull as if he could sense mysterious energies moving within.

"What are you looking for?" Shadow asked, walking over to stand By Vio's side. Vio continued to run his hands over the hull.

"It's just so…." Vio's voice trailed off.

"Weird?" Shadow put in.

"Sort of." Vio looked at him. "It's unbelievably far beyond our time. We've barely managed to achieve artificial flight, the gliders that we've managed to construct recently, but this thing can get up to unbelievable speeds with pretty much no effort." Vio paused. Shadow was looking at the huge gauntlets pensively. "And that weapon on the front of the craft," Vio continued. "I think we hit a Latiku nest on the way up, and that got completely vaporised. "

"You think it'll stand up to what Ganondorf plans to throw at it?" Shadow asked, as in the cockpit, Yellow pushed the throttle forward and the craft began to pick up speed, heading west. Vio turned to look at him, and their hands met. Vio stared into those silver eyes, and for a moment it felt like the two of them were the only things that existed, floating through infinity.

"I think that 'stand up' is a bit of an understatement." Vio smiled, and with a roar, the Stormeagle's engines reached full power and the craft shot away to the west.

**Yay! First bit of VioxShadow where Shadow is actually conscious! I told you this would take some time. I've been busy with other stuff, school, exams, Kerbal Space program and LOTS of other stuff. Please review! **

**And by the way, for those that are wondering, This thing will have a sequel. I will not disclose any information as of yet (seriously, I'm only just reaching the halfway mark on this thing), but the title will be Twenty-Four Swords. Adios!**


	14. Thuderous Assault

**Tanthachon25: Okay, this is where the whole thing ramps up a gear.**

**Vio: …..I hope this mexshadow bit is not going to ramp up as well publically.**

**Tanthachon25: personally, I couldn't care that much how your relationship progresses outside of the plotline. You could take off your clothes and get busy right now for all I care**

**Molestia: Was that an invitation to-**

**Blue: YAAAAAHHH!**

**Tanthachon25: OH GOD NO!**

'**Bla-bla-blam!'**

**Yellow: Almost gave me a heart attack, that's okay.**

**Natailie: BERRIES!**

'**Red faints' 'Blue faints' 'Green faints' 'Shadow dies of heart attack' 'Yellow drops his hat in the fire'**

It was ominously silent. Zelda's grandfather, one of the Hylian kings who had fought in the Roggoron wars **(1) **had described a 'lull before the storm'. Zelda had been seven then, and had thought it slightly nice that if she did ever fight, it would be calm before the battle. Now, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Vanesuela and the Guard-Captain, it was torture.

The mass of unidentifiable daemons was steadily approaching, and Zelda could hear the stomp of their feet and the bashing of swords on shields. The massed Hylian Guards stood resolutely in front of the largest breach in the castle's walls: a huge hole where the gatehouse would've stood had it not been scattered all over castle town.

"Eta?" Zelda asked, glancing at Vansuela.

"Two minutes, if that." The knight answered. He touched a gauntleted finger to his ear and spoke into a rudimentary radio device. "What is the condition of the defence catapults?" He asked, and one of the lieutenant-knights on the wall answered him through his own device.

"East battery is operational and is currently loading. The centre battery is holding together, though trebuchet three can't fire without shaking itself apart. West battery was completely destroyed in the first attack, but our super-range cannons are still largely intact."

"Good." Vanesuela looked relieved. "When ready, fire on the pre-detailed choke points, that's where we'll push them ba-" The Knight was cut off as a huge clap of thunder tore the skies, which darkened, a huge dark cloud mustering above the castle. And then, with a roaring, screeching sound, reality itself began to twist and fracture, and a huge rift opened up above them, swirling tendrils of dark lightning lancing down towards them. At the same time, there was a flash, and the air in front of the massed castle guards twisted and rolled, tiny particles of darkness forming small hurricanes. And out of the largest of these stepped a figure.

The figure was huge, almost ten feet, and so heavily armoured it looked like he was just some kind of bulletproof statue. The armour was well made, and a deep purple-black in colour, with pewter-grey swirling designs towards the edges, which were trimmed with obsidian. The helm was an unforgiving mask, with a large gold plume. The shield the figure carried was the size of a cartwheel, and a sheer disk of the same purple-black metal, and the sword looked like it could cleave a moblin in two with no particular difficulty.

"Darknut!" The guard-captain yelled, and the massed ranks of the guard locked shields and raised their swords.

The Darknut raised its sword, and before anyone had time to react, thirty more Darknuts materialised in a long line. They shouldered their huge musket-like weapons and unleashed a devastating volley that tore through the Knight's ranks, bypassing their shield wall and cutting huge swathes, causing armour and flesh to merely vaporise the target with devastating effects. Vansuela fell backwards, watching in horror as the unit around him dissolved into thin air. The Guard Captain was blasted backwards by a shot from one of the Darknuts, his shield disintegrating in his gauntlet. And as Zelda shouted "Retreat!" and the battered Castle Guard scrambled back from their new enemies, no-one noticed the falling star.

"Heat shields compromised, extending de-orbit drag surfaces." Yellow called out, his hands darting over the_ Stormeagle's_ controls, as the crafts hull began to shudder, and the view through the canopy became tinted with orange. Green swung into the cockpit, peering round the side of the pilot's chair and peering through the canopy.

"How far are we?" he asked, keeping his eyes locked on the horizon.

"From the castle, about three minutes, although we may suffer a slight diversion." Yellow said, flicking a switch and bringing up an image on a little green background in the corner of the canopy. "What looks like a dark-world portal has appeared above the castle, and is churning out reinforcements faster than you can say 'aww piss'."

"D'you reckon you could knock it out?" Green asked. Yellow sucked air in through his teeth.

"Not sure. I'd need something like a super-high energy laser, and I can't find anything on that level in the ship's systems." In the back of the craft, Shadow's ears perked up** (2)**, and he jumped to his feet and strode towards the cabinet, the contents of which he'd been hanging off in the _Stormeagle_'s wild ascent. Throwing open the doors, he pulled the last rifle out of its clamps and reached for a power pack that lay in neat rows on a shelf near the bottom.

"Would this do?" He asked sticking his head into the cockpit and holding out the weapon. Yellow's face lit up.

"If that barrel design matches that of a what this thing's internal database design calls a lascannon and if the munitions are detachable power packs for the thermophotic projector then yes that does far better than that expected!" Yellow looked at the weapon, and his voice raised in excitement as he got a better view of the weapon.

"Vio's the best shot," Green looked round and beckoned the purple link over. "Hang out the side door, se if you can get a shot on a large stormcloudy thing hanging over the castle." He instructed.

"Rephrase: a large dragony-stormcloud thing." Yellow looked alarmed. "Look!" he shouted, and as the nose of the _Stormeagle _dipped slightly, the darkworld portal came into view. It was a huge roiling mass of cloud and lightning, twisting and boiling. Underneath the cloud, the head of a huge dragon was forcing its way out of the hole in the world. Vio swore, and Yellow flicked a switch, causing the orange glow from the canopy to fade, and with a whine of servos, one of the side doors lowered. The purple link turned from the cockpit, took the lascannon from Shadow's outstretched hand and walked onto the lowered door.

The wind whistled past him, and his hair whipped about in the airflow. Vio unclipped his helm and donned it, hearing a slight click as the helm locked in with the rest of the armour, and shouldered the weapon, very glad for the helm's inbuilt display which brought up a targeting reticule that, with a single blink from the boy, centred on the heart of the dark portal. He squeezed the trigger, hearing a slight hum that grew louder as a bar on the right of the helm's display indicated the weapon's charge. Vio braced himself for the expected recoil, and didn't see the flock of keese shrieking down towards the _Stormeagle_. Only with Yellow's sudden cry of alarm as the leading keese clattered across the glass canopy did Vio realise something was wrong, and by that time, one of the daemons was up in his face, clawing at his armour. Vio stumbled backwards in surprise, and tripped over the small edge between the lowered door and its lining. As he crashed to the floor, five keese took advantage of the opening and swept inside.

Red was the first to react, gripping his fury pistol in both hands and sending a volley of bolt shells tearing into the leading daemon. Yellow, who had slipped out of the pilot seat when the first keese entered, shouting for Blue to take the controls, drew his long, gilded sword and lowered it at one of the keese, which had landed on the deck in front of him with a clatter of claws on steels. It's unnaturally large chitinous beak clacked, and it roared, throwing itself forward on spindly claws , swinging its bladed wing edges viciously. Yellow ducked to avoid the first strike, raised his shield to deflect a second, but a cry from Vio, who in the process of getting back onto his feet had been knocked down by the largest daemon, caused the ochre link to lose his focus, and the third bladed slash scored a line in Yellow's right pauldron, knocking him backwards. As the keese reared up for the kill, Yellow punched it in the thorax, stunning it and forcing him away just as he brought his sword swinging round that smashed into the creature's left wing.

For a few moments, the sword and the bladed wing edge scraped together, sparks flowing along both surfaces as they battled for supremacy. Yellow, gripping the sword with both hands, didn't notice that the spot on the hilt under his index finger had depressed slightly, and a rune was now glowing red on the spot. Suddenly, with a series of almost harmonic clicks, the edges of the blade splintered, the shards rising to form small teeth, which had now replaced the smooth, sharp edge of the blade. This came as a surprise to both Yellow and the keese, and it came as an even bigger surprise when, with a screeching and whirring of motors, the teeth shot up the blade and around the tip, disappearing into the hilt and reappearing on the other side. The addition of this new blade tipped the balance in the link's favour, and with a slash, Yellow's chainsword sliced through the keese's wing, sawing its torso in half as if it were moving through silk, only with more blood. **(3)**

With a battle yell, a discharge of energy and a pathetic squealing, the last of the keese was punched out of the _Stormeagle_'s open side door. Blue lowered his thunder hammer, which he had affectionately named 'krakenstorm', and pulled the door up and closed. Vio looked about for the lascannon, which was now in Shadow's hands.

"Come on someone, take the shot!" Yellow, back in the pilot seat now called out from the cockpit. Shadow looked down at the weapon in his hands, before turning and running towards the back of the craft, punching the lower button on the ramp controls. As the hatch began to lower, Shadow ran up it right to the edge, and as the link was cast into sunlight from the ground up, he shouldered the lascannon, not bothering to helm himself. He looked down the barrel, lining up his target with the small iron sight at the end of the barrel. He pulled the trigger, hearing the hum as it charged.

"Got the bastards." Shadow murmured, as Vio ran towards him. He depressed the trigger all the way. The weapon roared, as a huge lance of red light blasted from its end, momentarily linking itself and the portal by a strand of crimson energy. Then, with a thunderclap, the dark clouds of the portal began to boil, rolling faster and faster, the dark lightning battling with red. The portal appeared to be bleeding, a heart of red energy roiling inside of it, until with a sound many times louder than a sonic boom, the portal exploded, the lascannon energy bursting outwards in a lateral shockwave that tore across the skies, blasting the portal into nonexistence. The dragon, roaring in outrage and pain, began to deflagrate, its very fabric burning and flaking off , dissolving into embers which was scattered across the castle.

"Good shot!" Green yelled in amazement, watching as the shockwave rippled across the skies before dispersing. He patted his comrade on the back. Vio grinned at Shadow, who was staring out at the castle below hi, and put an arm round his shoulder.

"We're going to have to see at some point who's the better shot." Vio laughed, nudging the black-armoured link. Shadow was still staring down at the castle, his face resolute. The _Stormeagle_ banked round, circling the castle.

"There are still thousands of the buggers still loose in the castle." Shadow didn't turn as he spoke. "We need to get down there, push them back." Green turned, staring at Shadow in amazement and slight disbelief.

"We'd never get close!" He objected. "We'd get shot out of the sky as soon as we get within twenty feet, no matter how resilient this thing is. "Shadow gestured to the two huge jet engines attached to his back, and cocked his head, smiling.

Twenty minutes later, Shadow and Red were standing on the lowered rear ramp of the _Stormeagle_, the wind whipping past them. The front assault hatch had been opened, and Green, Vio and Blue had flattened themselves against the internal hull of the craft as the air rushed though the craft's interior. Red's arms were outstretched, stooping against the airflow, and Shadow had his arms under his armpits, ready to bear his weight as soon as the jump pack fired up.

"Shadow! Are you sure this will work?" Green yelled at Shadow over the comms network. Shadow, behind his visor grinned.

"I have _no idea_!" He yelled to the wind, engaging his jump pack and kicking him and Red off the ramp an out into the air. For a few perilous seconds, the world span as Shadow righted himself, the pair diving headfirst towards the castle. Shadow flicked up his helm's HUD** (4)**, which highlighted in red the areas of greatest enemy concentration. Shadow made a slight course adjustment, flaring the jump pack for a moment and sending them soaring towards the observation deck west of the castle. Red consulted his HUD and brought up an aerodynamic display, watching with growing anxiety as the altitude reading plummeted.

"Shadow!" He gave a warning cry. The link flipped in mid-air, so they were now falling feet first and let off a burst from his now down-facing jump pack, slowing their descent. A darknut below looked up, and raised his musket, sending a volley of dark bullets into the sky. Red produced his shield, and three of the rounds thudded into the ornate red&blue fire design.

"Brace yourself!" he yelled, and Red drew the Spear of Vulcan, taking it in both hands and pointing it earthwards. Shadow gave a last burst on the jump pack, and about twenty feet from the ground he let go of his passenger. Red dropped the last few feet, swinging his spear upwards as a darknut rushed up to meet him. The flaming blade of the spear cleaved through the purple armour in a blazing hurricane flame and embers, and the Darknut fell to the ground, some areas of it still burning. The shield, released by the armoured figure clattered onto the cobbles, and Red had a split-second idea, landing on the shield and changing blade mode on the Spear of Vulcan to ice. With a single touch, the cobbles became iced over, and Red slid along on the shield, slicing and stabbing as he shot into the heart of the battle, leaving fire and frozen bodies in his wake.

With a screech of jets, Shadow slammed into the observation deck feet first, cracking the cobbles and sending up sparks as ceramite**(5)** met stone. The impact force knocked a Darknut off its feet and sent a blin pitching over the balustrade and down into the square where Red was decimating pretty much everything down there. Shadow didn't pause, and unsheathing his claws, slashed through a moblin behind him, smacking another blin off the observation deck with a backhand slap on the end of his spin. He coalesced one set of blades, flicked that hand up, ejected the now single blade, caught it and threw it at the Darknut getting back on its feet. With a burst of energy, the blade drove into its faceplate, burying itself up to the hilt with a shattering crack. Shadow bounded forwards, tearing out the blade as the darknut fell, beheaded one moblin, lacerated a second, threw his fury pistol into the air, caught it and unleashed a deafening volley of bolt rounds at full auto right into the face of a Rednut, shredding the armour with can-sized projectiles. He spun round, slicing an arrow into matchwood and impaling the offending bow moblin on his talons, punching its head off with one blow from his oversized gauntlets.

Shadow's hearing, enhanced by the helm's inner systems, picked up the sound of footsteps precious seconds before a blade came swinging down at him. Shadow used his jump pack to turn and dive backwards, the blade slamming into the ground a few metres away from him. Shadow looked up into the face of the ogre towering a good head or two above him, and unsheathed his talons. The ogre's brain didn't fully comprehend what was happening until Shadow's talons struck it full in the chest. The force of the thrust Shadow had put into his jump pack lifted them both off the ground and over the edge of the observation deck. The ogre, Shadow's talons still embedded in its chest crashed to the ground, flattening a cluster of miniblins causing a small shockwave to emanate outwards from its landing area and digging the electrified talons in deeper still. With a flare of energy, Shadow dispatched the creature, wrenching out the talons and unsheathing them. He looked up, just in time to see Red skimming towards him on top of a shield. Shadow dived out of the way as Red hurled the spear like a javelin, lancing a Takkuri out of the sky and finding a perfect chink in a Darknut's armour. As both targets began to deflagrate, Shadow turned to his counterpart, who had kicked up his rudimentary form of transport (which flew into the air and killed two keese with one shield) and jogged to a halt in front of his companion.

"Well this is interesting!" Red vaguely remarked, blasting a big blin's head off with a fire-shooting pistol which Shadow had failed to notice earlier. Shadow was about to reply, but he was too busy face-shielding a Darknut who had got too close. Both looked up and at each other though, when there was a roar from somewhere behind the wall behind them, and with a crash, a battered, bloody, exhausted and broken figure crashed through the wall. It sustained flight for about a second, before crashing heavily to the ground and slewing along the cobbles in a river of sparks. The figure was slight, dressed in guard armour that was slightly too big, and was dented ripped in a number of places. Shadow caught a glimpse of a pearl necklace, with an ivory charm bearing a gold tri-force symbol, and long, flowing golden hair. And when they realised who this person was, Shadow and Red cried out together in horror and recognition.

"Zelda!"

**(1) Basically a war in Hyrule's past involving rouge Gorons. Non-canon, so don't trust this.**

**(2) See chapter 9 annotation 1.**

**(3) 'From the victim's perspective, the death stare looks a little bit like this: [insert angry face here]….ONLY WITH MORE BLOOD! –Slomozovo, hi ima draw you**

**(4) For those who are too STUPID to know, HUD means heads-up display. It's the thing you get in first-person shooters.**

**(5) Ceramite is the material that makes up power armour. My god, I've got so many footnotes here.**

**Also, did you know that I once thought Hyrule was pronounced Hyrudle? Crazy man!**

**Whew! This was a fun chapter to write. Witness the power of Astartes and Hero moulded into one destructive weapon. I believe this is my longest chapter yet, and certainly my longest epicfightsceneofLoZ. This is the turning point for this thing. Everything gets more intense, more fast-paced and more mind-shootinthefacing from here-on in. Fasten your seatbelts, engage your safety harnesses, grab your lascannons and hold on for the 3****rd**** biggest ride of your life. Don't ask about 1****st**** and 2****nd****. Read and Review please!**


	15. Crossing Swords with Darkness

**Tanthachon25: Well, this is probably the finest hour of writing here folks!**

**Shadow: so basically you're saying it all goes downhill from here, then?**

**Vio: Well that's depressing.**

**Tanthachon25: Or it could just mean that this is my favourite part!**

**Green: Or it could be a suggestion of everything going to pot?**

**Tanthachon25: Or it could be a case of over-analysing a simple expression for this and the previous chapter?**

**Yellow: Suuuuurrrreeeeee…..**

About five minutes before the battered and beaten form of Zelda independently managed to bore a rather large hole through at least six inches of cobblestone, Vio and Blue were battling the wind five point seven-one kilometres above the castle, on the lowered tail ramp of the _Stormeagle_. Vio had discovered, apart from that Blues are very fun to hit in the face with the leading edge of a glider, that stowed inside two large apparently decorative Ceramite plates in his back was what appeared to be a very lightweight metal and gossamer glider, even complete with a small rotating autocannon in the nose. (When this glider had sprung out, the left wing edge just _happened_ to smack Blue in the face. Only an accident, no need to get viole-'punch') The purple Link was now standing directly behind his sapphire counterpart, his arms hooked under Blue's armpits ready to take his weight when they de-ramped. It gave him no small satisfaction to see Blue sweating in terror.

"When would you like me to go?" Vio asked coolly, praying thanks that the Gerudo-style helm hid his uncontrollable grin. Blue, who had chosen to go bare-headed, as he 'don't trust a large block of clay to let me see out of it' had screwed up his eyes to shut out the sight of the 5.71(ish) kilometres between him and the ground, and was silently begging that he would suddenly just teleport to the ground and get it over with.

"JUST ****ING GO AL-****ING-READY I FEELLIKEI'MGONNA****INGDIEUPHEREIFYOUDONTJUSTAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAA!"

Vio's grin grew even wider. "I'm gonna take us down on the count of 5, okay?" He spoke into a private vox channel. Blue nodded, trying to take deep breaths.

"5." Vio tilted the wings of his glider, crouching slightly to help them catch the wind. The pair of them felt themselves becoming slightly less heavy, Vio's boots gradually parting company with the tail ramp.

"4" Blue was just about to shout for Vio to hurry up when the purple link tilted the wings flat against the oncoming wind, slamming them backwards and catapulting them off the ramp and into open air. Shutting out Blue's screaming, Vio scanned the castle below him, highlighting in red the catapult batteries that appeared to have the wrong target and which were lobbing boulders into the inner castle. One in particular, a long range Crosscannon **(1)** mounted on the outer walls, was getting dangerously close to hitting something, and as the HUD's motion sensors picked up the _Stormeagle_ speeding down towards the outer wall, Vio activated the turbojet that provided the glider with propulsion when it needed it, and the two of them shot out of the skies, hurtling downwards at a colossal velocity. With a few thought commands, Vio brought up the armour suit's statistics, particularly the impact capability, doing a quick thrust/velocity calculation in his head and setting a waypoint on the HUD for immediate retrofire. Placing the waypoint some ten metres above the crosscannon's gun platform, Vio highlighted the darknuts on the gun platform in red and with a quick remote uplink to the glider's autocannon, he picked out his targets.

Vio was pleasantly surprised that the autocannon's targeting system compensated for his velocity, and with a squeeze of one of the glider's handle areas, fired of half a dozen rounds at a darknut in the process of loading a shell, the glider's airframe shuddering under the recoil. He felt a dark thrill as despite the lack of armour-piercing ability possessed by the gun, the darknut was brought to its knees by the weight of fire, and only just realised that he was still carrying Blue, who was still screaming. Rolling his eyes, Vio dived, the manoeuvre waypoint shifting slightly, before lifting the nose, putting reverse thrust on the glider's small engine and yelling at Blue to shut up and get ready to bash stuff. The Crosscannon reared up in Vio's field of vision, and he dived again, skimming over the rooftops and swooping up over the crenulations of the gun's emplacement.

Vio released his irate payload, using the glider's engine to spur himself upwards, doing another momentum/force calculation and bringing up the armour's maximum shock absorbing capacities. Twenty metres above his target, he tilted the nose up further, spinning round and using the glider's wings as an airbrake, slowing his ascent and sending Vio hurtling towards the ground, sword drawn. The impact was enough to shatter the stone underneath his feet and even created a small shockwave that knocked his foes off balance and gave Vio the chance to compose himself. He swung his shield, a steel-trimmed pentagon trimmed with steel and inlaid with purple crystal designs, off of his back and took hold of it, the sword in his other hand. The Rednut squared up to him, hefting a massive executioner's axe. _Long reach, large impact force._ Vio thought. _But slow. If I can get within reach, I'm hoping this thing will be able to act as rudimentary can opener. _ Vio glanced briefly at his sword. It was a two-handed weapon, not as long as the knight broadsword his father used, but with a colossal blade, easily ten inches wide and tapered to a slanted edge, the point gleaming razor-sharp. **(2)**

The Rednut made the first move. With a roar, it stormed forwards, bringing its axe down in a diagonal sweep that Vio dodged easily, rolling out of the way and coming up on his adversary's left. The blade cleaved right through the stone floor, gouging out a small crater where it hit. Vio began to feel nervous. _That just went through about a foot of solid granite. If he hits me I'm dead_. The next sweep of the axe came in at Vio's left, the Rednut spinning round. By instinct, Vio raised his shield, knowing the axe was too fast to dodge, his brain reminding him of that axe's capabilities and shouting at him that a shield would be as effective as stopping that axe as a cardigan would have in stopping a charging rhino. The axe hit the shield with a sound like a supersonic anvil hitting a gong, and the massive axe was deflected off as if it were made of rubber, its wielder looking very surprised, the momentum throwing him completely off guard. Vio didn't hesitate, sprinting towards his staggering foe, ducking one sweep of the axe that was far too high, deflecting the backslash with his shield and, switching to a two-handed grip on his sword, brought the massive blade round, cleaving through the axe's handle and on to glide cleanly through the Rednut's armour as if it were chopping treacle. The torso of the daemonic suit of armour, still clutching the two halves of its axe, slid off its legs and crashed to the ground in wreaths of purple smoke as the daemon inside the armour returned to the dark world.

"Blue? Where are you?" Vio called over the comms, looking round for a sign of his comrade, and only just glimpsed the lunge of a Darknut before its sword was hurtling downwards at him. Vio's huge sidewinder blade **(3)** was already rushing up to meet the sword, catching between the blade's upper spikes and sparking heavily as Vio pushed upwards, firing up the engine on his glider **(4)** and pushing the sword away and Vio upwards. Spinning round in mid-air, he brought the sword round, taking off the top few inches of the Darknut's sword, and bringing his shield up as he landed, deflected his opponent's clumsy strike with the broken end of the sword. A leap and an upward swing soon unbound the spirit from the animated suit of black armour, which clattered to the floor in a smoking pile of metal, a neat slit running down the chest plate. Wasting no time, Vio ran towards the Crosscannon, bringing his sword down upon one of the oakensteel supports. The blade buried itself in the wood, but otherwise did little damage.

"Blue! The cannon's not going down!" Vio yelled, ducking as a moblin charged at him, before shield-barging it over the crenulations. "Get the hammer on it!".

"INCOMING!" Vio heard Blue scream. His counterpart had clearly led himself away from the fighting, because as Vio stuck his head round the supports of the gun, Blue was charging along one of the parapet walls that linked the tower to one of the other weapon bearing towers (The weapon here was destroyed in the first assault on the castle), shouldering foes out of his way. A big Blin tried to get in his way, and regretted it. Blue had grasped its head in his oversized gauntlet and flung it into the ground, closely followed by the rest of its body, without breaking his stride. As he approached the Crosscannon, he drew the fury pistol from its holster and emptied an entire clip of mass-reactive rounds into a darknut, forcing it to its knees. Blue grabbed the hammer from his back and brought both it and the huge powered gauntlet on his right hand down together onto the gun's primary support with a devastating thunderclap. The wood was literally pulped, and with an ominous creak the Crosscannon slowly toppled off the tower and down into the mass of daemons below.

"Yellow!" Vio called into the comms as he and Blue rushed to the edge of the tower. "Crosscannon's down! No significant AA defences remaining that the knights aren't holding, you are clear to join us."

"Got that."

"We're supposed to fight all of that?" Blue queried, looking down into the mass of assorted bad stuff that surged across the cobbles towards the heart of the castle. Vio glanced down as well, and a thought struck him.

"Yellow, you still there?"

"No sorry, I am not able to get to the phone. Please leave a message and I'll call you back later"

"Ahahahaha, SLAP."

"whadcha want?"

"There's a large plaza-type thing less than 30 yards from our location, and it's swarming with nasties. You can set the Stormeagle down there, but you may have to clear an LZ."

"Will do, though at present I have a package to deliver."

"huh?"

"y'know…big, green, flying…..sword bearing package."

"Got that, see you on the ground."

"Over and out" **(5)**

* * *

><p>"Zelda!"<p>

Shadow and Red both started forwards as the princess skidded to a halt. Shadow got there first, making sure she was conscious and helping her to her feet. Shadow almost then had to catch her again, as Zelda's legs gave out.

"It's okay, you're safe now." Shadow attempted to reassure her, but struggling both physically and emotionally to make it sound realistic; he was now more carrying than supporting her. "Red, we need to get her back to the castle, or any place in this town that is still safe.

"S-shadow?"

"Yeah?"

"What about that guy?"

Shadow turned. Just in time to see something colossal shoulder its way casually through the hole Zelda had made in the wall of the Observation tower. Due to its size, it essentially had to bore another hole as there was a good metre and a bit of extra clearance required for the existing hole to accommodate it. It was huge, at least 3 metres tall, and almost as wide. The armour it wore was similar to that of a Darknut, but only in size. Huge curved pauldrons swept over its shoulders, a royal blue shadowy cape flowing out from under them that cascaded down the figure's back and crashed to the floor like inky waterfalls. Its chestpiece, easily the size of a small cart was of a dirty cream stone, edged with bronze. The rest of its form was clad almost entirely in gold platemail. Its helmet was angular like a hatchet, with vertical slits lower down and a long diagonal slit across where the eyes might be, and an indigo transverse crest on top of the helmet. The eyeslit generated an ominous red glow. The figure carried a large rectangular shield and a huge Sangkauw **(6)**, a double-ended spear with a crescent-shaped blade in the centre.

"Holy Fayore, what IS that?" Shadow muttered. He took a sideways glance at Red. Despite the fact he was wearing a helmet and that he was clad in crimson armour that gave him at least an extra 9 inches of height, Shadow could read the signs of fear just from his body language.

"**Have you come crawling to me to join my illustrious crusade?"** The figure boomed. Its voice was so deep as to be verging on the inaudible, and sent vibrations running through the ground, up through Shadow's legs and drilling through his brain. **"Or have you come to deliver the leader of these pitiful insects as a token of your loyalty?" **Another sideways glance at Red.

"Keep this guy occupied will you?" Shadow muttered into a comms channel. "I need to get Zelda to safety." Red nodded, and dropped into an offensive stance, legs wide apart, spear low and directed at the figure.

"**Answer me, do you offer up this creature to me?" **The figure was beginning to lose its patience. Shadow exchanged one last glance at Red and took a firm grip on the unconscious body of Zelda.

"Nope." He announced, and blasted off the cobbles. Red got a last glance of his ebony armour rising skyward on twin lances of smoke and fire, before his attention was diverted back to the figure in front of him.

"**You deem yourselves as my enemies?" **The figure approached Red ominously. **"Then so be it." **The figure charged.

Red sidestepped the sangkauw's spearpoint, bringing the spear of Vulcan up to deflect the curved blade as his adversary rammed it towards him. The two blades met with a clash, a spray of sparks and a flurry of embers. The sangkauw's blade had caught in a notch between the spear's blade and one of the plumes of decorative fire that curled around the blade's base. Red shoved the blade up and away, slashing downwards at the unguarded abdomen. The figure blocked the strike, the spear of Vulcan crashing into the sangkauw's handle, setting it alight. _Wood?_ Red thought. _This thing must be the army general or something, and he uses a wooden weapon?_ Suddenly, one of the spearpoints was scything towards him. Red leaned backwards out of its reach but was a fraction of a second too late, and the tip scored a fine line across his helm, connecting the two green lenses by a fine gouge in the crimson Ceramite. The darknut general followed up the spearhead with the sangkauw's crescent edge, but Red was prepared this time. With a flick of a switch, the halberd's blade blazed into icy blue flame, and when the clash of steel came, a shroud of ice flowed off of Red's blade and encased the sangkauw's blade, rendering it nigh useless.

When the darknut general tried to use the blade again, Red turned it aside easily with his vambrace. The lack of the central blade rendered the sangkauw little more than a double-ended spear, which Red was able to outmanoeuvre with infuriating ease. Without the crescent blade the darknut general was limited to stabbing strikes, which Red dodged and ducked every time, landing his own counterblows and slipping through his adversary's defences. With a roar, the figure charged at Red, lowering the sangkauw and hoping to impale this irritating foe. Red deflected the spearpoint with the gilded end of his own weapon, spinning on the spot and driving the edge of the spear of Vulcan directly at the darknut general's back. His adversary spun to meet the impending sharp firey death, bringing his shield up, but was unprepared and the strike sent it skittering across the ground.

Red pressed on, leaping into the air and driving the spear of Vulcan down towards his foe's breastplate. Unfortunately Red had mistimed his jump, and instead of powering straight through the stone breastplate, it sliced down across it, cutting a large gash that glowed with heat: Red's halberd had melted its way through the stone. The darknut general staggered backwards, giving time for Red to land on his feet, but in a matter of seconds the figure was up again, charging at Red with the sangkauw lowered. Red had no time to dodge the attack, but slung his shield off its magnetic locking port on the armour's backpack/generator and raised it. The spearhead buried itself into the ice/fire Yin & Yang design, but the wooden shaft that bore it was the place that the spear of Vulcan had struck, and during the course of the fight had been burning on. Now, it was little more than a stick of charcoal, and before the spearhead had gone even an inch into the shield, the wood buckled and shattered. The darknut General staggered backwards, staring in horror at the stump of wood, while Red stared at the spearhead and seven inches of shaft that was protruding out of his shield.

There came a shout from nearby; Red spun round to see two figures sprinting into view a hundred metres away, just rounding the corner of one of the streets that lead into the square. One was clearly visible, the sun glinting on the gold and silver trim of the royal purple armour, the other was spattered in black and purple blood, but it was still possible to see the deep azure Ceramite, and Red could recognise that face anywhere, even at extreme distances.

"Blue!" Red called, waving. He saw Blue raise a hand in greeting, and then saw the look of horror on his face. Red turned, just in time to see the fist twelve inches from his face and closing far too fast.

* * *

><p>At this distance, Vio could only watch as the darknut general lunged at the off-guard Red, and delivered a tremendous punch to his best friend's facechest **(7) **that sent him flying through the air, smashing into and through the front wall of one of the buildings. He heard Blue cry out in horror, and he couldn't blame him. Red was by no means the toughest, and even Vio, who prided himself on being technologically/mechanically aware didn't trust Red's armour to protect him against being hit by large pieces of stone travelling faster than they have any right to be.

"Blue, find Red and make sure he's okay," Vio shouted, already running. "I'll deal with this thing." He leapt into the air, the glider engine powering him towards his quarry, thrusting the sidewinder out in front of him, hurtling towards the darknut general Had Vio launched off a second earlier, the blade would've cracked through the armour and bisected its target, but the slight delay caused by Red's flight gave the darknut general time to grab his shield. The sidewinder was deflected upwards by the shield, taking an unguarded and rather surprised Vio with it. Had the purple link been expecting a rather large punch from below, it would've been blocked easily by his own shield. As such, the blow sent him flying into the air, uprooting a good eight feet of cobbles as he crashed back down.

Vio tried to raise himself up onto his elbows, but to no avail. His entire body was aching all over, like when you are forced into running a marathon the day after a triathalon, and his muscles gave way and he collapsed. The sound of heavy footsteps caught his attention, and he somehow managed to roll over onto his back. The Darknut general had smashed the icy sheath Red's halberd had sealed the sangkauw's blade in, and was now wielding it like an axe. It took its time. There was no danger here. Vio groped around for his crossbow, grasping the ash furniture, and brought it up. Lighting fast, the Darknut General swung up the spear end of the sangkauw and sent the crossbow whirring out of Vio's hands. It raised the axe high into the air.

"Vio!" The comms network suddenly came alive. "This is Yellow, package of killy-death inbound! You might wanna get out of the area."

"What?" Vio scanned the heavens, and caught a flash of gold. The helm tracked the _Stormeagle_, magnifying the image. Something clicked in Vio's head, probably in realisation of just how much firepower that craft carried. "Yellow, No!"

But it was too late.

Twin pillars of fire jetted from the _Stormeagle_'s wing, the missiles banking and curving down onto their target. Vio scrambled backwards as far as he could, only a few metres before he collapsed again. The Darknut General brought the Sangkauw down. Vio shut his eyes as the blade came down and the missiles streaked towards him, javelins of firey death that would consume them instantly. Vio could only hope the missiles would kill him first.

* * *

><p>In his attempt to get to the incapacitated Red, Blue was forced to pick his way carefully through the rubble of several buildings. But Blue was not the kind of person who would pick his way carefully through anything, and fuelled by a desperate need to help his friend, he was as far from being careful as it was logically possible to be. After a good minute or so of wading through rubble, Blue finally managed to get into the ground floor of the building Red had smashed into. He had to shift quite a bit of debris in order to get up to the second floor, but he managed it, and crossed over to Red's prone form in two steps, kneeling down by his side and unclipping Red's helmet, fearing the worst.<p>

Despite the unexpected flight, he wasn't in too bad a state. Unconsciousness, a few bruises but otherwise unharmed. Blue would've probably shook him awake, maybe shouted him awake, but looking at Red's face, he decided against it; Red was far too cute when he was asleep. Eyes closed, mouth slightly open, Blue couldn't help smiling. Red was dangerously cute. Blue shook his head, trying to dispel the thoughts. He was disgusting himself with all those soppy thoughts.

The crunch of shattering stone diverted him. He looked through the hole in the wall, and saw Vio on the ground, the Darknut General looming over him. His counterpart was scrambling backwards. Blue was about to jump out of the building and run to his aid when the comms network lit up.

"Leave him, Blue." Green's voice buzzed in his ear.

"You Mad?!" Blue yelled into the helmet mic. That was when he caught sight of the missiles.

Two seconds later, the missiles struck. It took half a second for his brain to register what was about to happen next. The remaining one and a half seconds were taken up by Blue not quite getting through an unrepeatable swear.

"FUU-!"

* * *

><p>The missiles got there first. Vio was thrown clear of the blast by the shockwave of the impact. Multiple alerts flashed in his HUD; armour integrity 43%, internal gyros non-functional, PA system non-functional. It seemed he'd got off lightly. The same couldn't be said for the Darknut General. As the smoke thinned, he could see that the armoured giant had been knocked to the ground by the explosion, parts of the armour fused and charred and a few pieces had simply fallen off.<p>

But there was something wrong, Vio thought. There had only been one explosion, and there had been two missiles. They couldn't have exploded simultaneously; he had noticed one was launched a fraction of a second later. There should've been another blast. And then Vio noticed the shape moving inside the smoke. It was a figure, straightening up. The air around it was blurred with heat, and Vio could hear the low whine of rocket motors. The smoke dissipated completely, and even though he hadn't had much time to get acquainted to it, the armour was instantly recogniseable.

Cold fury boiled in Green's eyes. Vio had never seen his friend like this. Green had always managed to restrain himself reasonably well, even exam stress rarely flummoxed him. This was Green at his darkest. Just the look on Green's face scared Vio. The darknut general staggered to his feet, retrieving his weapon.

"**Another Lamb has yet come to the slaughter." **The figure planted his feet wide apart, holding the sangkauw like an executioner's axe.

"If you have anything besides air in that helmet, you will order your forces to retreat right now." Green's voice was only marginally above a whisper, and sounded remarkably calm, almost casual. But one look at Green's face and it was clear that he was trying his hardest to stop himself from charging straight in sword first and doing just about everything physically possible to the Darknut with it. Now Vio understood. Green was the furthest any of the links could come to be called patriotic, and Green was now facing down the monster that had burned his home and killed his friends and comrades. It was his duty to protect the people, and here was a creature on whose hands was Hyrule's blood.

The Darknut General bellowed in mirth. **"Retreat? Look around you. Your city is fallen, two of your kind lie dead at my hands, what makes YOU think you ca-"**

It happened so quickly, Vio could only barely register what was happening. Green brought his fury pistol up, and emptied the entire 20-bolt **(8)** magazine right at the Darknut General's helmet. The last round had barely left the barrel when Green put full thrust on the jump pack and powered through the air, screaming defiance and expletives, sword held two-handed and pulled back into an execution position. The Darknut General had only milliseconds before Green was upon him. It was like a tornado had swept over a weaponsmith. Green was an excellent swordsman on his own (He'd been idle for two years and had honed his skills daily with the castle guard), but the armour he wore and indeed the very sword he grasped seemed to boost his abilities to unimaginable levels. He fought so hard and fast that it almost looked like he had an iron halo, **(9)** his sword glowing and singing through the air, and the noise! It was like someone beating an upturned saucepan with electrified triangles, clangs and kzaps and almost musical chimes as Green's fury poured into its target. To be honest, Vio was really surprised that the Darknut General was even still in one piece. Naturally, his second thoughts explained it to the rest of his brain.

_He's using the sangkauw as an axe, and although axes are usually quite slow, the size of him compared to it is like Bremula _**(10)**_ wielding a fire hatchet, he has enough speed to at least block Green's strikes, hang on, was that a spark just there? Okay, block most of Green's strikes._ Vio was awestruck, watching the fight. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a blue and a red figure jumping down from one of the larger buildings of the square's edge. Blue must've got to Red and got him back on his feet.

The Darknut was tiring slightly; more of Green's strikes were getting past his guard. As a result, Green's finesse with the blade was draining. An overhead strike brought the Darknut general to his knees, another forced him to raise the sangkauw to block. Green hammered on the weapon's blade with an unbelievable fury, striking again and again and again, until Vio saw chips of steel fly off the darknut's weapon, Green's sword embedding itself deeper into the metal with each strike. And it was on the fifth stroke that the tide turned.

As Green raised the sword, the Darknut General thrust upwards with astonishing speed, the curved blade of the sangkauw catching Green and pushing him back. Green was caught off guard for only a moment, but that was long enough for the Darknut General to spin round and drive the remaining four-inch long spearpoint of the sangkauw right into the centre of Green's chest plate, entirely disappearing into the Ceramite in the dead centre of the gold triforce emblem.

Vio stared. _My eyes must be wrong. This cannot happen._ Said his second thoughts. _You have not needed glasses for over a year now; what you saw is the truth, Green has just been kebabified._ His third thoughts butted in.

On the other side of the square, Blue and Red had stopped mid-sprint. Blue had gone catatonic, stock still, gazing at the scene before him. Red tried to cry out, but his voice had deserted him. The first tear trickled from one eye.

Green looked down at the weapon embedded in his chest. The Darknut was frozen in triumph, as if time had stopped. Probably waiting for the last of his life to flow out. Green took hold of the wooden shaft of the sangkauw. He pulled. There was a millisecond of resistance, and then the shaft came away, the end steaming slightly. The emerald Ceramite was untouched and pristine. The spearhead, all ten centimetres of it, had been _vapourised_ by the armour_. _If there was a face behind the Darknut's helmet, Green could almost picture the triumphant grin being slowly replaced by shock.

Then with a roar, Green's jump pack came to life, propelling him into the air. At the same time, Vio threw his sidewinder skywards; he had seen the glance from his friend, understood the ever-so subtle nod. Perfect timing. Green snatched the blade out of the air and powered into the cobbles, throwing the darknut back. With two blades, Green was nigh unstoppable. The first strike with his own sword was blocked by the sangkauw, but the sidewinder came in from the right, cleaving a long gash in the armour from which black smoke began to pour. The second strike with the sidewinder struck exactly where Green's sword had been hitting the Sangkauw's blade, and the blow shattered steel. Green's third, fourth and fifth strikes forced the Darknut General back, giving Green space to blast up into the air again. The Darknut General craned back to keep Green in his sights, and that was when, screaming his defiance at his foe, daemonkind in general and pretty much the whole of the dark world, Green dropped like a stone with unimaginable speed, driving the sidewinder through the Darknut General's breastplate and his own sword though its head with the sound like a gauss round hitting steel. **(11)**

Green stood up, wreathed in black smoke as the daemon chained within that gold armour dissipated and fled back to the dark world in shame and lots of pieces. Green turned, pulling Vio to his feet.

"What did he mean by he killed two of my kind?" Green's anger was still present in his words, but Vio picked out the hint of concern as well.

"I don't know. He can't have killed Yellow, not from here."

"And Shadow left to get Zelda to safety." Red interjected, jogging up to the two of them, Blue on his heels. "I guess he must've thought he'd killed me with his fist."

"So he didn't then." Vio glanced at Red, who rolled his eyes.

"Duh, of course not! Do I look like a ghost? Could you put your arm through me?" This prompted Blue to cuff Red round the head from behind. The strike was probably meant to be gentle, but considering the armour Blue was wearing there was enough strength behind his hand to knock Red to the ground.

"That's for scaring me." Blue looked down, almost sternly at the prone form of Red.

"He is going to be okay, right?" Green asked, looking at Blue.

"Sure."

"Hey guys!" There came a voice from behind them. Yellow was running towards them, bare-headed and grinning. "Where's the fun at? Hope I didn't miss all of it!"

As a collective mass, Green, Blue, Red and Vio looked down at the few shards of armour left on the flagstones.

"Uuuh.." Blue began uncertainly.

"**ZEYKAMIFF!"**

**(12)**

* * *

><p><strong>(1)<strong> This is a bit like a crossbow, bit like a cannon. Please don't ask me to go into the details.

**(2)**You guys ever seen the picori blade from the minish cap? Take the hilt, widen it a bit and fit in a blade like the one on Cloud's Buster Sword. Inspiration here actually came from Banquo's sword in the Manga adaption of McBeth.

**(3) **In Hyrule, they call very wide blades sidewinders. Problem?

**(4) **Despite it being called a glider, Vio's has a jet engine. It doubles as a jump/jet pack.

**(5)** POINTLESS! (Over means message finished, expecting reply, Out means conversation finished.

**(6) **A Japanese weapon, see image. ( uploads_ )

**(7) **You've seen the size of a Darknut, It's huge. Their fists can comfortably punch face and chest at the same time.

**(8)** Green's, and come to think of it all the links' fury pistols use mass-reactive rounds about the size of a small can of sweetcorn. These shells, or bolts, are self-propelled and detonate a millisecond after impact-enough time for the round to bury itself in the target. A headshot from a fury pistol WILL cause your head to explode. Oh, they are also fully automatic.

**(9)** No, not that kind. ;-)

**(10) **Bremula is one of the knights, more specifically, the biggest and strongest one.

**(11) **You know the sound in Halo when a MAC gun goes off? A sound a bit like that. It can't really be well translated into Zelda terms, as they don't really have MAC guns. Nor Gauss cannons, to be precise.

**(12)** This is Humgonian. Prize of internet chocolate to the person who can not only tell me which one, but who uses it.

* * *

><p><strong>Ohkay, it's done. I said this would be the finest hour, and I was in no way exaggerating. This chapter has taken me seven months to write, with work starting in February 2013. It has seen through my GCSE exams, two seasons and the whole of the summer holidays. I humbly apologise for the wait, So I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. This roughly marks the halfway point in The Legend of Zelda, An Iron Chain. Not only that, but this is the largest chapter in the fic, indeed the largest I have EVER written on fanfiction, topping off at 5,919 words, beating Javelin Facility Chapter 1's 4,618 by over 1000 words. This is my Order of the Phoenix, and I really hope you enjoyed it. I would also like to thank my most dedicated reviewers, Alranath, Roseanna62, and of course Watermelon Juice. Your words have given me the support and energy to keep this going and not give up. And to all you others, make sure to give some nice long reviews! No really, I love all you guys. And Wj, even though you've changed your usernamedeleted your original account/made it known your real name is Emily, I will still keep calling you Watermelon Juice, whether you like it or not!**

**Review and stay tuned!**

**Bye!**

**Tanth 'Reallytirednow' Hachontofiyve.**


	16. Golden Eagle

**Tanthachon25: Okay, I'm really sorry this has taken so long. I'm currently in the run up to my AS exams and have been doing shittons of work.**

**Yellow: What's a shitton? It sounds like a sheepdog or something**

**Shadow: SERIOUSLY?**

**Green: 'facepalm'**

**Dean: Fack-ee-palm.**

With the loss of their commander, the dark legion fragmented. Darknut teams lost direction and without wider tactical support, they were easily overcome, too few to press forward and too isolated to join up with other teams. Aside from the tactical support their leader had provided, the Darknut General had provided psychic restraint for all the unorganisable beasts in the army. Without that support, packs of beasts turned on themselves, ripping their allies to shreds and quite forgetting they were supposed to kill humans. The legion was ripe for defeat, and the arrival of the links and the _Stormeagle_ would provide the means through which Hyrulian victory would be reaped.

* * *

><p>Yellow was in his element. He moved the targeting reticle over the HUD, slewing it over his target and squeezing the trigger, at the same time cutting thrust to the VTOL jets. The <em>Stormeagle<em> dropped the last few feet, landing with a clang on the cobbles as the twin assault cannons set just forward of the side hatches whined into life, pouring a solid stream of hot steel into the advancing darknuts. He flicked a switch, and the _Stormeagle's_ assault ramp lowered with a whine of servos. With a battle cry, his passengers charged out and into the fray. The assault cannon rounds punched into their target, tearing apart the lead darknut and forcing the rest to seek shelter from the cannon fire, ducking amongst the ruins of a building as the knights of Hyrule powered towards them.

It had been Green's idea. The _Stormeagle_'s speed, firepower and transport capabilities could allow small teams of knights to hunt down and destroy the scattered pockets of the shattered legion. It was a good plan, Yellow had to admit that. This was the third team he had delivered into the fray with pinpoint accuracy. The team currently sprinting out of the _Stormeagle_ was a small portion of Vansuela's guard, accompanied by Blue, who was providing tactical(ish) support via the comm channel to Green and the rest of the links. As he watched, the Darknuts surged forward out of the cover, a few raising their muskets and letting fly a hail of dark purple projectiles that streaked towards their new enemies.

With a shouted command, Vansuela's guard dropped to the floor as one, the rounds cutting gouges into the cobbles. Blue however kept charging, the projectiles pinging off his armour like hailstones. From the cockpit of the _Stormeagle_, Yellow saw an oppourtunity. He slewed the pipper onto another target, cycling through the craft's weapon systems until a green μ flashed up in the selected weapon slot. He squeezed the control column's trigger. The multimelta had long been primed, its firing chambers prefilled with superheated Krypton and Pyrum. The firing mechanism activated, and the gas was ejected, pulled into a beam by coils of electromagents in the weapon's barrel. The result was two beams of hissing plasma that leapt across the battlefield, slicing the air a few inches from Blue's helmet and striking the leading darknut. Yellow felt a thrill of grim satisfaction as his target burst into ash and molten slag.

"Blue, you're clear!" Yellow called into the comms. It wouldn't have mattered anyway; Blue's charge was unstoppable. His shield in one hand and his hammer in the other, Blue rampaged through the remaining darknuts, leaving utter carnage in his wake. The redknut who was seemingly in command was the last to face Blue, its large axe sweeping low at him. Blue jumped the axe and swung the hammer up into his adversary's face, knocking the helmet off. Yellow got a glimpse of an empty neck guard and gorget before Blue smashed down his target. Yellow switched over to the comms channel Green was using to command the offensive.

"This is Golden Eagle to command, another target destroyed." Yellow spoke aloud to the cockpit, the mics in his helm picking up his words.

"Got it. Vio's spotting another target on the southwest walls. Landing's gonna be a bit dicey, but Vio's lasing targets for you. Capture team's waiting in the main plaza."

"Roger that." Yellow said, marvelling at his own awesomeness. He switched channel. "Blue, I'm leaving you to do your own stuff." Yellow heard an undistinguishable grunt in response. "Have fun!" And with that, he thrummed up the VTOL jets, bringing the ASAS and RCS online to stabilise the take-off, swinging the nose of the ship round and kicking the main engines to life, speeding off across the rooftops.

* * *

><p>Red was waiting for Yellow in the main plaza, helmet in the crook of his arm. He was feeling a bit nervous, to be honest. Green had pretty much assumed automatically that he would be able to lead a unit of guard, and Red wasn't confident he had made the right choice. He looked around at his comrades. He didn't recognise any of them. None of them were knights in the sense of people like Vansuela and Artura, but the fact they had survived this long was testament to their skill. Red looked away, scanning the sky for a sign of the <em>Stormeagle<em>.

There. Soaring less than ten metres above the rooftops, an arrowhead of molten gold streaking towards them. It circled once, before slowing, fire billowing from its underside as it slowed and came into land with a clunk, the assault ramp lowering slowly. Yellow strode down the ramp, looking pleased.

"Come aboard. I think you will have a very pleasant flight, although we are all out of complementary peanuts." Yellow rattled off, ushering Red and the knights on board. "Feel free to take whatever seat you feel like taking, although don't literally take a seat as I have no idea how to reattach them if you do remove them. I don't have the right kind of spanner." Yellow waved at Red, before climbing the ladder that lead up to the cockpit. Red sat down in a seat nearest the assault ramp, which was closing with a whine of servos, and listened as the thrumming sound of the VTOL jets spinning up reverberated inside the transport bay.

Red turned to his comrades. "Okay, we're hitting a small redoubt on the south wall, where the enemy are holding out. Hopefully the bird will clear out most of them, but the LZ is still hot. Expect to be fighting right out of the hatch. Okay?"

The knights answered as one. Red had to admit they were very well drilled. Red put on his helm, a distinct click as it engaged with his armour, the HUD booting up. He switched the internal comms to a private channel.

"Yellow, how are we doing?"

"Target area is dead ahead. Going in for a strafe run very soon."

"Mind if I hang out the side to get a look?"

"Go ahead. I'm sealing off the forward bay from the back so the whole ship doesn't depressurise."

"Got it." Red walked to the front of the bay and slid through the bulkhead into the forward area, and jabbed one of the buttons on the inner wall. There was another whine of motors as the side door lowered, a gust of wind blasting through the interior as the air inside was sucked out in a whirling vortex. Red swung himself out of the bulkhead, grabbing onto one of the handholds and peering out at the scene below him.

The bulk of the enemy were retreating; he could see that even from here. The dark blobs in the streets were moving away from the castle and out towards the walls. Here and there flashes of light could be seen among the fighting below, and on one street near the castle wall Red saw a glint of blue amidst a retreating sea of darkness, flashes of light where Blue's hammer smashed apart foes. About a hundred metres away, on the outer wall, he could see a large defensive structure that had remained relatively intact, and from the fact they were speeding towards it, Red guessed that was the place they were clearing out.

He jumped as a stream of projectiles whizzed past his ear, and flung himself back into the craft's interior, thinking that they had been fired upon.

"Whoops, should've warned you I was going to do that." Yellow's amused voice rang in his ear again. Red poked his head out again, as the _Stormeagle_ opened up on the position, the stone dancing and flying as it was ripped up by projectiles. The visual enhancers in Red's helmet whirred, and he could see that many of the creatures there had retreated into the deeper recesses of the fortification. Red caught a glimpse of a black object hurtling out from one of the stone parapets, and the _Stormeagle _was rocked by an explosion, losing height almost immediately.

"Yellow, what happened?" Red yelled, hanging onto one of the handrails as the craft spun out of control.

"Bastards threw a bloody bob-omb at us!" **(1)** Yellow's voice rang inside his helmet. There was a screech of jet engines, and the craft levelled, coming to a standstill. Red swung into the rear cabin, and looked at the guards sitting there, looking decidedly worried.

"We're going!" Red yelled. "Expect to be fighting right off the ramp!" He turned, ushering them into the forward cabin as the ship rose, the assault hatch swinging open. As they came level with the top of the wall, a hail of crossbow bolts, flaming arrows and dark projectiles pelted the hull, causing the guard to duck, and Red to raise his shield.

A roar of superheated gas answered those who had fired on them, as the _Stormeagle'_s Multimelta hissed into thunderous life. The darknut who had raised his musket was vapourised in an instant, causing the others who had the tenacity to emerge from cover to dive back into their hiding spots. And that gave Red the opportunity. He slung the shield onto his back, and drew both pistols, charging down the ramp at his foes, the guard hot on his heels.

It was over very quickly. Very few of the creatures there had realised they were now being charged at. Those who had realised this, a darknut and a handful of moblins had roared in challenge, and charged. Red kicked off the end of the ramp and landed with a crunch on the face of one of the moblins, raising both pistols and blasting another in the face with a double tap from each of them. The darknut charged at him, and Red tried to draw his spear but the thing was on him before it had reached his hands. He batted aside its sword and backhand-smacked it in the face, stunning it. Red jumped backwards and drew his spear, running the darknut through in a billowing plume of fire and embers.

He whirled, and was almost decapitated by a moblin clad in crimson armour and wielding a vicious trident. Red leapt back out of his reach, but he was still too close to use the spear and it was coming back too fast for him to draw his guns. Suddenly, there was a burst of black/purple as the glimmering tip of a spear burst out of the creature's chest. It roared, and tried to swipe at the thing that had attacked it, and in one fluid movement, the Spear of Vulcan lopped off the moblin's head in one clean burning slice.

Red turned to the knight who had struck. He was only slightly older than Red, clad in the traditional guard uniform, mail shirt and simple round helmet. Red could see he was trembling slightly. Red grinned, and rested a hand on his shoulder.

"You have a good spear. Bloody it well." He was laughing inside at how ridiculous his words sounded, but the knight nodded, smiling weakly. Red looked around him, raising his spear and expecting another fight, but was pleasantly surprised to see there was no enemy left. The knights stood around him, panting and bloody, but smiling. Red did a mental head count. Eleven knights. His heart lifted. He'd lead eleven into the fight. He had lead the attack and won with no casualties whatsoever. They had done it.

The comm link in the armour's gorget buzzed. Red jumped a little, and reached for his helmet. Green's voice immediately invaded his ears as soon as the helm clicked into place.

"Red, what's happened? We've had no call from you and Yellow talked about the _Stormeagle_ taking fire." Green's voice, while trying to be calm failed to conceal a distinctive note of concern.

"Green, I'm here. We've cleared out the wall segment with no casualties." Red couldn't help grinning as he said this, and almost giggled as Green let out a long whistle.

"I've gotta say, well done. But there's bigger fish frying right now. Look out over the battlements!" Red turned, looking out over the crenellations, and gasped. A sea of blackness mixed with spots of brown and red was streaming away from the castle, pouring out of the breaches in the walls like black blood from a wound. Red ran back to the edge of the wall looking out over the city, and saw, here and there through the streets, pockets of dark creatures in full flight, glints of armour and swords hot on their heels.

"Green…" Red stared out at the sight. "What's happening."

"We did it, Red." Green said. "We've won."

* * *

><p>"The army is in full retreat." The guard captain strode into the chamber. It had originally been a banqueting chamber for the Hylian royalty, but had been converted into a rudimentary command post where the retaking of the city was being planned from. Green and Zelda looked up from the huge map of the city. Green's face was set, determined, but Zelda's broke into a huge smile of relief.<p>

"Thank you. Give the order for everyone to congregate in the central plaza. Today's a good day."

Green turned at this, a frown creasing his face. "There's just one problem."

Zelda looked surprised. "What?"

Green looked from his father to Zelda. "What happens to the routing army? The way I see it if we let them get away, they are gonna return much stronger. If we destroy them outright or at least severely cripple them it will be highly unlikely that they will either return of their own accord or be merged into a smaller force."

Zelda looked concerned, but the guard captain looked impressed. "That's a good point. I think we should do so, make sure they do not have the strength to attack again."

"Yes but is it right?" Zelda burst out. "It seems very low to me to attack a fleeing army. Almost dishonourful."

"And have they not stooped to lower, what with burning our city down and everything?" Green hadn't meant his voice to sound harsh, but Zelda looked slightly affronted. But quickly it gave way to sadness, which went as quickly as it came to be replaced by the familiar determination.

"You're right." She said, face grim and set. "Send the enemy the message that our victory here was not a fluke. Let them see what we can do."

Green nodded, before turning away and striding away, onto the balcony. He buzzed up the comms again, calling the _Stormeagle._

"Yellow?"

"Mmhhmm?" Green sighed. He had to admit Yellow was starting to annoy him a little bit. He was always far too casual and jokey in serious situations.

"I have a mission for you."

"I'm listening."

"We need you to destroy the routing army. Not utterly, but by a lot. I'd say 80 percent needs to be dead."

"Very well, I shall do so." Yellow had taken on a sinister posh voice. "Extra crispy…"

Green clapped a hand to his face, hiding a grin. He watched as the golden star of the _Stormeagle_ swept out over the battlements and beyond.

* * *

><p>The <em>Stormeagle<em> didn't return for several hours, and by the time it did the sun was approaching the horizon, its fading rays turning everything to fire and bronze. Vio was waiting for it on one of the larger flat-topped towers. It was the only place fit to land the craft in, as there was little space in the city and having their most valuable strategic asset outside in the fields was an absolute nono.

Vio had watched the horizon for most of the afternoon, as it was lit up by the distant thumps of explosions and crackle of machine guns, his copy of _Hyrulean Legends and Natural Phenomenon_ lying open next to him. He'd long since gotten out of his armour, which he had left in the capable hands of the castle artificers to try and patch up. He had been trying to track down the mysterious weapons found in the Temple of Past, with little success. Flicking through the book to the Hyrule Historia section and working backwards, he had trawled through all the legends of heroes, searching for some reference to six powerful weapons. He had just started the chapter about the Hyrule Unification War when the sound of distant engines brought him up short. He looked up.

The _Stormeagle_ was cruising gently over the plains, a leisurely golden arrow. It circled the castle once, before coming to a standstill above the tower, VTOL engines roaring as the craft landed, bouncing gently as the hydraulics in the landing gear took effect.

"Glad to see the others have come to welcome the conquering hero!" Yellow grinned, striding down the ramp, still in full armour.

"Glad to see you haven't died and/or ruined that thing." Vio replied, grasping his hand. He lead Yellow to a door set into the wall of one of the taller towers joined to this one.

"Where are the others?" Yellow asked, as Vio snapped his book shut.

"Green's spent most of the afternoon in Zelda's office along with the other captains, Red's down in the kitchen helping with preparations for tonight's celebrations and Blue's helping with repair work."

"And what about Shadow?" Yellow asked. Vio's step faltered, just slightly, but it was enough. He looked around, as if he expected to see him there. His mind reeled. What had he been thinking? He had brought Shadow into the place he had once conquered, without thought to how people would react. His mind flashed to images of a torch-wielding angry mob driving Shadow out, and worse.

"Vio? You okay my friend?"

Yellow was looking at him, slightly worried. Vio broke into a run, careering down the spiral staircase. "I need to find shadow!" He yelled over his shoulder, almost barrelling straight into Impa in the corridor below. The old woman gave a squeal of fright, jumping backwards as the boy missed her by a few inches. Vio yelled a hasty apology over his shoulder, before continuing.

"You know Zelda is calling a gathering in ten minutes, don't you?" Impa called after Vio, who skidded to a halt.

"I'm sorry, what?" Vio looked back.

"Zelda has requested your prescence. You and your…friends…brothers…whatever they are."

"They have NAMES, you know." Vio gave her a half exasperated glare. Impa looked flustered.

"Well…anyway, that's what is happening. So you best make sure you're all smartened up, you know what they say about royalty able to spot dirty ears at thirty paces!" She called after him, as Vio strode away down the corridor, heading for the barrack dormitories. When he got there, he was surprised to see Red and Blue already there, and even more surprised to see a large folded object on his bed. He picked it up, and the reinforced emerald silk of the knight's cloak billowed and flapped in the last breeze of twilight.

* * *

><p>Green thought the fanfare was a bit unnecessary, but the castle soldiers struck it up anyway. He took a sideways glance at Vio, and the two shared a smile. He glanced at Red on his other side, who looked not far off terrified. Blue stood next to him, with Shadow and Yellow on Vio's other side. They stood in the front row of a phalanx of Knights, armour glinting fire in the last rays of the sun that streamed in through the Throne Room's windows. On the other side of the aisle stood the five senior knights, Valenzuela, Artura, Bremula and Maximillian, standing tall in their shining armour, alongside his own father. Behind the phalanx of knights was another of the castle guard, looking severely under strength, and behind that, rows of civilians, looking harrowed but otherwise in good spirits.<p>

The fanfare, produced by a small party of castle guards, came to a conclusion, and the eyes of everyone snapped instantly to the door in the centre of the room. Green dropped to one knee, bowing his head as he felt the others around him do likewise. He heard the door swing open and the tep tep of footsteps on the stone dais, but he could see little except the floor.

"I would like to say to everyone that formalities need not be observed. Not here. Not now."

Green looked up, and gasped, along with several others. Princess Zelda stood before them, but not as Green had ever seen her before. Instead of the usual regalia, she was wearing a plain white shortsleeve shirt and simple long lilac skirt that brushed the floor. Around her waist was a belt adorned with a ceremonial cloth and several small gold armour plates. A sword also hung from the belt, a thin longsword with golden quillions. Around Zelda's neck hung a simple necklace bearing only a pentagonal triforce pendant. Her left arm was in a cast and down by her side, and there were scars forming on her shoulder and the side of her face. Green's mental self-restraint broke. He did not want to admit it, but she was beautiful. More beautiful than he had ever seen her. It was a powerful beauty, like that of some sort of warrior-princess. Green smirked, realising just how accurate those words were.

"Today, every single one of you have proved yourself tenfold." Zelda began, looking around the room. "Today, we have reclaimed our homes and avenged the ones we have loved and lost." She paused, a look of genuine sadness on her face. "The cost of such a victory has been high. Our city has been brought to its knees like never before, but we are by no means down for the count." She smiled. "I stand here not as your ruler and queen, but as your friend and sister. The fighting has not left me untouched, as it has neither done so for all of you."

She grinned, a little sheepishly, looking over at Green's father. "Although I guess I haven't exactly been avoiding it, have I?" The guard captain chuckled a little. Zelda returned it with a smile, and then addressed the room at large.

"This day marks the start of a campaign to retake Hyrule in its entirety from the darkness."

There was a sudden outbreak of whispers and shocked murmurs, even a few of the knights looked surprised. Zelda held up her hand for silence, and the crowd was suddenly hushed. "While I cannot promise an easy road, the hardest battle is already fought. Thanks to the bravery of those you see before you," She gestured to the Links, and Green felt his heart swell with pride. "The dark army is destroyed and its general slain. Today marks the day when we take back Hyrule!" Zelda unsheathed her sword and raised it above her head as an almighty cheer rose up from the crowd, punctuated with metallic bangs as the knights hammered on their breastplates in salute.

Zelda lowered the sword, waiting as the cheers rolled around the hall, but after a minute or two she held up her hands for silence. "Now, before we proceed with the celebrations-" There was a hearty cheer from some of the crowd. Zelda held up her hands again "Yes, there are celebrations, but firstly, I have some medals to dish out."

A paige hurried out from a corner, bearing a small ivory box, and knelt at Zelda's side.

"Vendema Blue" Zelda called out. Blue looked stunned, and was encouragingly shunted forwards by Red. Green swore he saw his friend puffing out his chest as he approached the dais. Typical Blue, trying to get the attention. The blue link knelt at Zelda's feet, eyes on the floor.

"For services to the throne, gallantry, selflessness and valiance in the face of danger, I present you with the Golden Eagle." She removed from the box a large gold eagle design, the head replaced with the Hylian triple-triangle symbol, and attached it to the clasp of the knight's cloak.

"Furthermore, by this sword," Zelda unsheathed the sword again, placing the blade on Blue's pauldron. "and by the cloak you wear, I officially dub you Vendema Blue, Knight of Hyrule. Arise." Blue rose to his feet, unable to stop grinning, and Zelda raised his hand in hers to the fresh cheers and thunderous applause of the knights. He was still grinning by the time he returned to the line, receiving multiple pats on the back.

"Yamaha Red." Red nearly tripped on the edge of the dais, nervousness radiating from him like light. He received the same treatment, and bounded back to Green's side, beaming with relief. Green was next, and he walked off the dais to ecstatic cheers, the Laurels of Exempt Command sitting rather oddly in his mess of blond hair. Vio, surprisingly, looked almost as nervous as Red when he knelt before Zelda.

"It'll be fine. There's no need to look so worried." Zelda whispered, smiling, as she pinned the Golden Eagle to Vio's clasp.

"It's not me I'm worried for." Vio murmured, the fear in his voice hardly disguised. Zelda glanced over at Shadow. It was a tiny thing, and only Vio noticed it. She flashed him another smile, and continued with the ceremony. Vio left the dais smiling weakly, rejoining the line without a word.

"Hayabusa Shadow." Zelda called out. At once, sporadic muttering broke out, as Shadow walked up to the dais. Vio managed to catch a few, and what he heard only heightened his fears.

"_-wouldn't believe it…"_

"…_one of Vaati's top generals…"_

"…_don't know what they were thinking…"_

"…_tried again and again to kill them…"_

"…_was the one who broke the mirror…"_

_What?_ It was only one snapshot of a conversation, but Vio heard it as if it had been spoken in his ear. Now that he listened closer, he could hear other whispered phrases which lifted his spirits.

"…_say he helped them…"_

"…_heard he gave his life to take down Vaati…"_

"…_saw him with my own eyes…magnificent…"_

"…_rescued the princess he once kidnapped, Stockholm syndrome if you ask me…"_

Shadow had knelt in front of Zelda, the purple hair obscuring his face.

"Hayabusa Shadow, for services to the throne, gallantry and valiance in the face of danger, I present you with the Golden Eagle." She clipped on the medal. "Furthermore, for proving thoughtless selflessness, indomitable spirit and doing what is right despite the cost to your own life, I present you with the highest honour I am capable of bestowing, the Hylian Shield. May you continue to protect this land as you have done so before. Arise, Hayabusa Shadow, Knight of Hyrule." Vio was stunned beyond belief, as the cheers hammered his ears. Blue was yelling his support, and Yellow even whistled. He looked around. Practically everyone was cheering and applauding, Zelda was grinning from ear to ear and Shadow looked as if he'd been smacked round the face by a tuna. Shadow returned to his side, still in a state of shock as the cheering continued.

Yellow was the last to be awarded, and he made the best of it, bowing low in a theatrical manner as he stood beside Zelda and blowing kisses to the crowd as he went. Many of the knights had been with Yellow in the _Stormeagle_ during the final assault, and the cheering was almost as loud as it was for Shadow. It took several minutes for it all to die down, by which time it looked like Zelda's arms were going to fall off due to being held up for so long for silence.

"Now, I believe there are celebrations in order." Another round of hoarse cheers broke out, but she stared them down. "Yes, thankyou. _Anyway_, since the castle isn't in a great state, I invite all of you to the Motte and Bailey Pub, where we're throwing a celebratory banquet. Also all drinks are on the house!"

At this there was another cheer, as the crowds began to troop out of the hall, animated discussions and bouts of laughter accompanying them. Vio was about to follow the other links, who were chatting animatedly with Zelda, when he caught a glimpse of Shadow hanging back, looking hesitant.

"Something wrong?"

Shadow looked surprised to see him standing there.

"Oh, hey…" He scratched his head a little "Yeah, I was just…"

"Debating whether you should follow them?" Vio finished. The pieces were beginning to fit together. Shadow stared at him, surprised, eyes narrowing in a slight trace of suspicion.

"How do you know?"

Vio smiled, the words coming back to him from a time two years earlier when he had told Green the same thing.

"Because I am you." He smiled. And then, as he realised the potential for misinterpretation, he added "And anyway, I've had enough antisocial moments to know about that kinda stuff."

An awkward silence fell between them, Shadow trying to look everywhere but at Vio.

"I better be going."

"Where?" Vio was slightly takenaback. Shadow shrugged.

"Wherever. I don't know yet. I can't exactly stay here. Might try and take my chances with the gerudo-" Vio cut him off.

"No. You stay here." Vio's face was set. "Why would you want to leave anyway?"

Shadow's face flushed, flickers of anger burning in his expression. "You've seen them. They all think I'm evil!"

Vio put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Shadow…you know that's not true…look at what you have done!"

"What, you mean the good stuff? Or the whole burning-down-forests, assaulting the castle, fooling your _dad_ into thinking you were dead bit? The bit where I tried to _kill you_?" Shadow yelled. Vio was startled. Something in there reminded him of the old shadow. It was the anger. The anger still scared him.

"That was a long time ago…people change…" Vio murmured, inwardly amused as his mind connected back with a moment a few days ago, hanging above a blin camp debating the morality of his own actions at that time, two years ago.

"How? How can I ever convince them of that? In fact, how are you so convinced of that? Why are you even talking to me?" Shadow asked. Vio could read his expressions like they were written on his forehead. The cocktail of anger, frustration and sorrow radiated from him like dark force had done once.

"Because I can see past your actions…" Vio said softly. "Because I know there is good in you. Because…" He stopped himself, letting the last word trail off into silence. That wasn't something he was going to reveal. Not even to Shadow. Yet.

"They don't trust me. Even after everything…" Shadow's anger faded away as his face fell. "I see the way they look at me…keeping one eye open…they think I might just turn back to the dark…"

Vio put an arm round Shadow's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure the townsfolk will come round eventually…" He smiled. Shadow stared at him.

"I wasn't talking about the townspeople."

"Oh."

There was a long and protracted silence, as Shadow dejectedly stared at the flaw and Vio's brain worked furiously.

"So…" Shadow was the one to finally break the silence. "If I'm not going…"

"You can come back to our house." Vio finished. "We've got a spare room and Blue can sleep on the couch if necessary." Shadow snorted in amusement. "Although I take that back…Blue isn't exactly agreeable in the mornings, I dread to think of those results."

And then they were both off, laughing their heads off at the mental image of a grumpy Blue. And when, halfway down the main road to the Links' house, Vio suggested the possibility of Blue with a hangover, they were off again, laughing themselves into breathlessness in the twilight. The image was still in Vio's head as he pushed open the door to the house, flicking the hall lights on. The glint as Shadow walked over the threshold reminded Vio that they were both in full ceremonial armour. He made a mental note to take the armour back to the castle armoury.

"Nice place…" Shadow remarked. "I thought, since you guys are technically knights, you'd be housed in the barracks."

"It varies." Vio replied, carefully hanging the new knight's cloak on the coat rack. "When on duty or alert we stay there, but when everything calms down, we live here." There was a growl from somewhere near his stomach, reminding Vio how hungry he was. With everything that had happened, it had gone out of his head. He hadn't eaten since early morning. "I was thinking about making some supper, or something along those lines. Can I interest you in anything?" Vio asked, carefully removing his armour.

Shadow looked surprised. "Uhh, yeah, if that's alright. What were you going to do?"

"I usually root around in the fridge, find whatever looks good and put it in-between bread. That usually works." Vio smiled a little. "Sometime it results in very weird sandwiches."

"Well, as long as it's not too weird." Shadow smiled back. "I've had enough weirdness recently to last a lifetime."

* * *

><p>A round of bacon, avocado and mozzarella sandwiches and an unexpectedly long game of chess later, the doorbell sounded. Vio opened the door to find a rather damp Green standing outside on the doormat.<p>

"I guessed you'd be here." He smiled, lowering the hood of the knight's cloak, water sliding off the armour. Vio looked outside into the darkness, the rain pooling in-between the cobbles on the road.

"When did it start raining?" Vio asked.

"About half an hour ago." Green replied, hanging the knight's cloak off and struggling to get out of his armour. "Didn't you notice?"

Vio shook his head, almost as surprised as Green was that he'd missed something. "I was preoccupied."

"Ah. Shadow here?"

"Yes. We've been playing chess for some time."

"Ah, interesting." Green was hopping around on one leg, trying to slip a half-unbuckled greave off the other leg. "Did you flatten him, too?"

"Actually it was very close. Got very dicey about midway."

"Mhm?"

"He threw away a third of his pieces trying to take one bishop, then attacked en masse. He was very hard to repel."

CRASH.

Vio applauded. Green had managed to get the greave off but had staggered backward into the coat rack, causing an avalanche of overcoats and other garments, including the bags full of Vio and Shadow's ceremonial armour, which landed squarely on Green's head with a clang.

"Clumsy noob?" Vio smiled, offering a hand to Green and hoisting him onto his feet.

"You don't have to rub it in, you know." **(1)**

* * *

><p>As evening stretched into night, Vio and Green gradually became quite bemused. While they had had plenty of experiences involving Blue getting pretty hammered, it was almost unheard of to see Red out so late. Their bemusement increased when Red finally turned up, swaying a little and surprisingly in the arms of Malon, the girl from Lon Lon Ranch. Both of them were entirely smashed, breaking out into uncontrollable fits of giggles every three seconds. When they finally staggered upstairs, with Malon drunkenly giggling "Come on, big guy, let's get you upstairs," Green stared after them, before exchanging and incredulous glance with Vio<p>

"Could they…?"

"No…"

And then they both burst out laughing.

* * *

><p>Blue and Yellow were the last home, as the time crept on towards midnight. Blue was uncharacteristically jolly, belting out a rendition of 'Live long, love long', <strong>(2)<strong> a curious melody involving a cringeworthy amount of la las, and appendixed by Blue with a gratuitous amount of swear words. Yellow on the other hand was pretty sober, supporting Blue by one arm and looking worryingly grim. Green, who had got the door, took one look at him, and felt dread creeping through him like ice water.

"What's wrong?" He asked, instantly serious.

"Your dad." Yellow replied.

"Why? What's happened?"

"He's…" Yellow seemed to struggle for words. "Let's just say, he's not in a good mood."

"Why?" Green asked again.

"Shadow." Was Yellow's only answer.

Green was confused. "But he's been here the whole time? Why would he…"

"Okay, I may have said something I shouldn't have," Yellow admitted. "But the point is, stay away from him tomorrow morning. My spidey senses tell me shit's gonna go down."

Green sighed, shaking his head. "I'll go tell Shadow." He muttered, turning and climbing the stairs. Yellow shouted after him.

"Would probably help for you to tell him to vacate the area tomorrow!"

**(1) Oh Four Swords Misadventures, you are such a comedic masterwork!**

**(2) Elzo kinda deserves to have some fun poked out of him. He's like a smartass version of Navi without the Z targeting. **

**I'M BACK. BEYOTCHES.**

**Okay, I am so sorry for the huge delay. No doubt many of you people thought me dead and buried. The thing is, everything has been a bit weird and I've been suffering some serious writers block. That and I've had little time to sit down and write, and even less time when I am actually in the mood to do so. But I will not stop. I will not give up An Iron Chain. I have big plans for it. I should be getting a laptop sometime soon and I shall hopefully be able to do more of this in the future. Plus extended summer hols are just beyond the horizon, so I should be able to write more. Hope you enjoyed this beefy chapter. I was trying to explore the characters some more.  
><strong>

**Thanks for being so loyal. Please Fav and Review. They get me through the weeks. **

**Tanth 'Insertdakkagunhere' Hachontofiyve. **


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